


Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You

by Bolt41319



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2019-10-28 04:08:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 40,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17780297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bolt41319/pseuds/Bolt41319
Summary: When Regina Mills returns to Storybrooke to pack up her parents house, she is forced to face a decision she made years ago that uprooted her life completely.Happy #LovefromOQ Valentines @babylawyer!!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Babylawyer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babylawyer/gifts).



> Trigger Warnings - Drugs, death, descriptions of grief

As the snow falls onto Storybrooke she stares up at the mansion, the one she had so wanted to forget after all of these years. Her time on Mifflin Street had come and gone in the 18 years of her childhood, and while her family still owned the home, it now sat uninhabited. Dust collecting among her father’s priceless collectable horse statues, and her mother’s decorative plates. 

Coming back was never part of her plan until today. 

Her parents had chosen to move years ago, to seperate states of course. Her father’s love of traveling took him far out west, where he could watch the horses run in the caverns of Montana and live out the rest of his years in a cabin atop of the nicest mountain he could find. 

Her mother’s new husband took her south to Boca Raton, living within a lavish mansion and away from all of her problems, including her daughter. 

Her time in Storybrooke had come to an end on the day of her 18th birthday, when she hopped into the bed of her best friends pickup truck with one suitcase and never looked back. 

As she stands in front of the house now, fear overcomes her. There was no semblance of home, no familiarity of happiness or good memories flooding into her heart. Only cold, aching dread and the urge to flee, to run the other way, get back into her beat up, old truck and stay away forever. She wanted to let the town of Storybrooke take over her parents home, foreclose it and sell it off to the highest bidder, but she couldn’t. Her mother would have her head, and her father would be heartbroken. 

Regina fiddles with the gate, twisting the stubborn lock to the right and left before popping it open with her hip. She throws her bag over her shoulder, closes the gate behind her and walks up the steps. 

The house had always been intimidating, and she hates it. 

She inserts the key into the door and pushes it open, tosses her bag onto the floor, and falls back against the wooden frame. The house was drafty and a chill ran through her, pulled her out of her exhaustion and sent her further into the house. It looked the same as when she had left it 8 years before, all dark colors and terrifying undertones that represented her mother well. 

She trails her fingers along the bannister as she walks up the stairs, eyeing over her childhood photos lining the staircase. They were few and far between, mainly stoic posed family photos that lacked smiles, or joy, or anything she supposes other families show in their pictures. 

At the top of the steps her eyes fall upon her childhood bedroom, the door she’d snuck out of some 10 years prior, tiptoed down the steps and out of the house that was slowly killing her. 

She cracks open the door, spots the perfectly made bed and the exquisite furniture and lets out a heavy groan. The room held more harm than good, just as the house did, and the steps did, and every bit of this house just unleashes hell on her every emotion. 

She shuts the door, walks back down the stairs and flips on the lights. As she filters through the junk mail their maid left of the counter, tossing the unimportant things into the trash, she feels the buzz of her cell phone in her back pocket. A small smile creeps up her cheeks at the name and she swipes  the call, pressing her phone to her ear. 

“Mom! Mom, guess what happened?” 

“Hello to you too, Henry,” she chuckles, throwing the remainder of the mail back onto the counter. “What happened today?” 

“I got an A on my project! Ms. Trainer said it’s one of the best she’s seen yet. And then, we got to present them in front of the class and my class said mine was so  _ cool.  _ Mom, it was awesome. And then, when we went to lunch, Michael asked me if I wanted to come to his birthday party next weekend! Can I go, please Mom? Aunt Ella told me she’d take me if you said it was okay.”

“Oh, sweetheart I’m so happy for you.” Regina puts the phone on speaker and sets it on the counter as she starts to fiddle around the kitchen, opening curtains to let some light in. “And is that so, Cruella? You volunteered to take Henry to a 9 year olds birthday party?” 

“Your son’s persuasive, Mills,” she hears her friend groan in the background. “But yes, I did promise the dear he could go if you gave permission.” 

She sighs, sitting down on one of the stools at the counter. “Well then, I suppose I can’t say no then?”

“Yes!” She hears Henry cheer through the phone. “Thank you, Mom! You’re the best.” 

“I’ve heard,” she laughs. “Hey kiddo, let me talk to Cruella really quick, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” she hears a shuffle and Cruella’s voice comes over. 

“Hello darling. How’s the house?” 

“Worse than I remembered,” Regina groans. “There’s so much shit in here, packing alone is going to take me at least a week.”

“You know you don’t have to go about this alone, right? Mal and I can bring Henry up and the four of us can get it done quickly.” 

“No, no I couldn’t,” Regina shakes her head. “Bringing Henry around here would do more harm than good, to him and me. My parents aren’t here yet but I suspect they’ll show up sooner or later. And the second the town sees my truck outside the rumors will start. The last thing I want to do is put Henry into the middle of all their talk.” 

“We both know Henry could handle it, Regina. And he knows something is up. He’s a smart kid.” 

She shakes her head, quickly brushing away the tears collecting. “A smart kid who shouldn’t have to be the center of his mother’s 8 year old teenage pregnancy scandal. Drop it, Cru. He doesn’t need to be around all of this. He really doesn’t need to be around  _ me _ like this.”

“Okay,” she hears Cruella whisper, “Sorry, love. You know Mal and I are just worried about you.” 

Regina swipes at the tears as they come steadily now. She tries desperately to contain herself, to push down the emotions that she isn’t ready to face, and shakes her head. “I- I know you are, and that’s why I love you guys. But Cru, please just watch my son for me. I have to get through this on my own. It’s about time I gave myself the closure from this place that I should have so long ago.”

She hears Cruella agree again, and with a soft “ _ I’ll call you later _ ” she passes the phone back to Henry. She listens to her beautiful son excitedly talk about his day some more, promises to call him before he goes to bed, and hangs up. 

Back to the house, and the unnerving silence. 

She gives herself two minutes to cry, following the process her therapist had reminded her of before she left Mist Haven to come back to Storybrooke.  _ Crying is not a weakness, Regina. It’s a natural reaction to stress. You have to let yourself feel, to let yourself grieve _ . 

The tears slow and she collects herself, taking a deep breath before pushing away from the counter and making her way toward the bathroom. The water is cool against her face as she splashes it against her skin, taking in the moment of calm and one more deep, soothing breath. 

When she comes back out of the bathroom her eyes gaze out the window at the tall man with dirty blonde hair stopped dead in the street, staring at the withering bed of her old red pickup. 

“No,” she gasps out, the tears welling in the corner of her eyes yet again. He wasn’t supposed to be here, she’d checked. His last known whereabouts were out west, somewhere far off, away from her and everything else they’d left behind. She can’t stop watching him, stepping closer to the window, enough that she can see out but with the afternoon sun, the glare off of the snow blocks his attempt to see in. 

He paces around the car, lifts a hand to trail his fingers over the scratch still etched against the frame after all these years. She watches him intently, her every breath shaking as she tries to contain herself. She wants to run out to him, to throw her arms around him and let all of her anxiety melt away just as she had when she was a teen, when she spots a pair of tiny feet next to his under the truck. 

Oh. 

He’s with a kid. 

The little boy pulls away from him, runs around the other side of the truck. He’s bouncing, a ball of energy clad in a little green jacket and an adorable knit cap with curls sticking out wildly underneath. He looks nothing like him, with dark hair and an olive complexion, but she knows that look of adoration across the little boy’s face. It’s a way Henry had looked at her when he was small, the look smaller children have for their parents. 

He’s scooping the child up into his arms now, tickling the little boy and setting him up on his shoulder. She can see from there the tension on his face- he’d never been one to hide it well, and she wants to run out. Wants terribly to let him see her, to just let his name fall from her lips for the first time in years, but she’s frozen at the window. 

His fingers stretch out and linger at the truck for a moment before he turns, whispers something to the little boy and carries him back down the street, away from the truck and unknowingly away from her.

With a shuddering breath she finally turns away from the window and back toward the kitchen. She grabs a pad of paper, writing out a list of things that she needs to get done before her parents show up. Her father had promised to come early, sneak in before her mother came to criticize her packing. If she’d had it her way she would have let the place rot. It had never felt like much of a home to her anyhow, but her father had begged her to go. He was always more sentimental than she, and he wanted their family to have a proper goodbye with her childhood home. She couldn’t take that from him either, especially after all of the shit she’d put him through. 

Regina finishes up her packing list and goes into her bag, pulls out her wallet and knit cap. Tugging the hat over her head and her jacket on she ventures out into the snow, headed into town to find boxes and packing supplies at the hardware store. 

For every ounce of disdain she had for coming back, she did secretly love her little town. 

Storybrooke had been the most interesting, and yet boring place to grow up. She’d been born in Mist Haven and her family moved to Storybrooke immediately after. Her father’s family had money, raised a successful breed of racing horses that roped her mother in. Her mother had been the daughter of a farm owner, and while she wasn’t the easiest person to get along with her mother was driven, born to be a true businesswoman, and she took over the family business seamlessly. 

She did miss parts of it sometimes, especially the small town feel. Mist Haven was their home now, but as she walked past Granny’s Diner she was taken back at how she longed to walk in and drink a cup of coffee or a milkshake, like she had throughout her high school career. 

\--

_ “Regina Mills! I swear girl if you don’t stop jumping over my booth seat’s I’ll have your head.”  _

_ Regina grimaces, giggles into her arm as she leans across the table to swipe a fry from Emma’s plate. “Sorry Granny! It won’t happen again, I promise.” _

_ As she hears Granny grumble, “You said that the last time,” she laughs and leans into Daniel’s arm. “So, are you guys ready for tonight?”  _

_ Robin takes a sip from the milkshake Granny had made him before pushing it across the table to her. “Since you can’t stop eyeing it up,” he sighs, “and I think we’re good. I swiped a few bottles of liquor from John’s stash- he shouldn’t be too mad when he finds out, and I told my mum we were heading to the lake to set up camp for the night.” _

_ “Do you all want me to pick you up?” Daniel asks, putting his arm around Regina to tug her in closer. He presses a kiss to the side of her head. “I can put blankets in the back of the truck and we can sleep there too, if we need to.” _

_ “I have a couple tents,” Robin chimes in.  _

_ “Perfect,” Regina grins, leaning up to kiss his jaw. “Emma, is August coming?”  _

_ She shrugs, swirling the ice cream around in her up, gaze cast down toward the table. “He’s blowing me off again. But maybe? Daniel have you called him?” _

_ There’s an optimism in Emma’s voice that breaks Regina’s heart. Emma had been head over heels for August since their sophomore year, and while Emma knew that he wasn’t always the smartest, and didn’t ever make the best choices, she saw the good in him and Regina couldn’t help but respect that.  _

_ “I’ll call him for you. He’s always ready for a good time” Daniel smiles. The four go back into their planning, all while Granny side-eyes them from behind the counter.  _

_ After they finish planning the rest of their evening, Daniel gets up to go to the bathroom and Regina slips out, walking up to the counter with her wallet in hand.  _

_ “Hey, Granny, can I grab the check?”  _

_ “‘Course dear,” she turns, ripping the paper from the pad. “Hey, tell me you kids aren’t doing anything stupid, are ya? I swear all of your parents would have me closed if they thought you kids were in here planning something irresponsible.”  _

_ Regina blushes, ducking her head. “We’re being smart Granny, I promise. We’re going down to the lake to camp tonight and we just needed to make sure we had everything together.”  _

_ She doesn’t believe her, Regina can see that much etched across Granny’s face, but she watches the older woman nod anyhow, counting out change. “This whole town loves you guys… Just, be careful, okay?”  _

_ “We will Granny,” she promises. At a honk she turns her head, see’s Daniel waving to her from the cab of the truck. “Besides,” she grins, walking backwards toward the door, “What could go wrong?”  _

\--

She’s frozen outside of the diner, trapped inside the memory of the night their lives turned around. A bell chimes from the door and she snaps, looks up to come face to face with the older woman who had practically raised her as she’s run around the town. 

“Regina Mills, as I live and breathe,” Granny gasps out, taking a tentative step away from the diner. 

The air leaves her, and the tear’s that have threatened to fall since she drove back into the town start to come again. “Hi Granny,” she whispers. She rushes forward, her arms wrapping tightly around the older woman, burying her face into her shoulder. 

“I saw you through the window and I couldn’t believe it,” Granny gets out, hugging Regina close to her chest. “I’ve missed you kid.” 

“I missed you too, Granny.” 

After a few moments Granny pulls out of the hug, reaching down to grab Regina’s hand and tug her toward the diner. “It’s freezing out here child, we’re getting you inside with a warm cup of coffee.” 

“That- I-” she hesitates, before following Granny inside. “That sound perfect.” 

She takes a seat at the counter, tugging the beanie off of her head and pulling her gloves off. Granny sets a coffee on the bar, slides it across with a few vanilla creamers and a donut. “I figured your order hasn’t changed much in… what has it been, 10 years?” 

“8. Thank you, Granny, truly. I’ve missed you…” she trails off. “And this coffee too.”  

Granny nods her head once and sips her own coffee. “Tell you what, I’ll fuel you with free coffee for as long as you tell me where the hell you ran off to all those years.”

Regina takes another long sip from her cup, eyes closing as the delicious brew warms her through. “It’s a long story to tell,” she lets out quietly. 

“I have time. The last I saw you, you had a little baby bump and you were drinking a strawberry milkshake in that booth right there. And then you disappeared.” Granny leans against the counter with a sigh and reaches across, taking Regina’s hand in hers. “Did you have the baby?” 

Regina feels the smile spread across her face, reaches into her coat pocket to tug her phone out and slide it across the counter. “That’s Henry. He’s 8, he’ll be 9 in August. He’s so smart, Granny, you’d be so proud of how he does in school. I know he’d love you too. He’s creative and kind and… I don’t know how I got so lucky to have a kid like him.” 

“I’m sure you’re an amazing mother.” 

She shakes her head, swiping to show Granny some more photos. “I don’t think I’m enough for him. He knows a lot more about my past that I’d like him to, than any child should know. But I always believed in being honest with him. A lot of shit happened when I was pregnant with him, and I knew that one day he’d ask about it and I honestly didn’t know what to say. So I told him the shortened story- that when I got pregnant with him I left town with his Dad and my friends, and then they all went away and I met his Aunt Mal and Aunt Cruella. But as he’s getting older I know that it’s getting harder on him. Father’s day especially.” 

“You know that Ruby didn’t have a father?”

“Really?” Regina asks. Granny had always been quiet and protective of her family. She knew that Ruby, her granddaughter, was younger than her, and that she would visit in the summers but that was about all.

“Really,” Granny nods, taking a drink from her coffee before refilling both of their cups. “When my daughter Anita was about 20 she came home pregnant. Her college years had been rough and she got mixed up in the wrong crowd, and by the time she figured out she was pregnant the father was long out of the picture. I’d tried to get her to go back and find him, figuring that he should know about his child, but Anita insisted that they were better off. She finished college on her own time, moved in with me and I helped her raise Ruby until she was about 4. When Anita finished school, she and Ruby moved away and I’d get her in the summers. Ruby knew her entire life that she didn’t have a dad, and she’d talk with me about it. But mainly she knew that her mother loved her, and that I loved her. Anita had friends too that practically helped raise the girl, like I’m assuming you do. So while he may wonder about his father, you know that he loves you and you love him. I promise you, that boy is thankful for what he has.” 

Regina gets up and comes around the counter, wrapping around Granny in a hug. “Thank you. I don’t think I know how much I need to hear that sometimes.” She pulls out of the hug and tucks a fallen strand of hair back behind her ear. “I should be heading out to the store now. I’m back to pack up my parents house and they don’t have boxes or anything useful.” 

“I heard they were selling it. Finally done with the place?” 

“I think so. Dad’s happy out in the mountains, and Mother has her new millionaire husband.”

“You know,” Granny starts, grabbing a to go cup of coffee for her, “you could move in there. It’s all paid off, you could be back in town with people that love you… I could finally meet that adorable son of yours.” 

Regina shakes her head, pulling her knit cap back on. “I don’t think so Granny. My time here is over. And besides, I think it’d be better off for me to be far from here.” 

Granny passes her the cup after securing the lid on. “You saw him, didn’t you.” 

She hesitates but nods her head. “He’s suspicious, I know that much. But he doesn’t need to know that I’m here Granny. It wouldn’t be good for any parties involved.” 

“I think you’re being stubborn.” 

“He hates me, Granny. It’s been that way for years. No good in bringing up a past that will hurt both of us.” 

She sighs a quiet, “Very well then. But, you do not get to leave this town without saying goodbye again. You hear me?” 

“I promise I’ll be in for dinner later. Save me some lasagna?” 

“I will. See you later, kiddo.” 

Regina makes her way back out into the cold, coffee cup warming her hands as she walks toward the hardware store. She makes her way in, talks with Gepetto about trivial things and her son, and gets her boxes and tape. On her way back to the house her phone buzzes with a text from Mal, asking her if she’s holding up. She calls her, presses the phone between her shoulder and her ear and shifts the folded boxes she’s carrying. 

“Hey there. Have you seen him?” 

“Wow,” Regina rolls her eyes. “Way to cut straight to the point.” 

“Well I know how worried you were about seeing him or his family, so have you?”

She sighs, turning down toward Main Street. “Yeah, I saw him. He didn’t see me though. He was outside the house and the truck was packed out front, so he stopped and was staring at it.”

“I knew you’d see him! You should go talk to him Regina, try to explain your side of everything that happened. It’s not your fault.” 

“No, Mal, you don’t get it-” Regina pauses with another sigh. “He had a kid with him.  _ His _ kid, Mal. He has a son.”

“You have a son.”

“Yes, I know that. But he has one too, Mal. One that I didn’t know about, with whomever the kid’s mother is. He’s probably married and happy and seeing me would ruin all of that. I can’t do that to him, Mal. That part of our lives is behind us. It’s time to move on.” 

“You don’t know that Regina. He could be-”

“Standing up the street from me. Oh, fuck Mal I’ve got to go. I’ll call you tonight. Give Henry a hug for me,” she quickly gets out, and hangs up the phone. 

He’s standing outside of Granny’s with the little boy, talking animatedly on the phone. The boy is holding a toy sword, swinging it around as if fighting an invisible opponent. She tries casting her eyes down as she walks, focusing on the pavement under her feet, trying to avoid him seeing her. She could just cross the street but the quickest turn back to the house is right after the diner, and she knows it’ll look more suspicious for her to walk across the street just to walk back. 

She quickens her pace, head down and boxes clutched to her chest, when the edge of a toy sword swings and collides with her leg. 

“Oof,” she gasps out, and she hears a string of apologies toward her. “I”m so sorry. I was trying to fight the dragon.” 

“Oh, it’s okay,” she smiles at the boy, trying to make her way past when she hears him. 

“Roland! I told you to stay over here. We need to go into Granny’s and pick up a pie to take to-” 

She looks up at him, the boxes slipping from her grasp and landing against the sidewalk. 

“Regina?” 

Her breath escapes her. He’s just as handsome as she remembers, with a bit more of a beard and longer hair than he had when they were 18. His eyes though, haven’t changed. She feels everything she’d tried to press down, the longing to explain everything and beg for forgiveness. 

“Hey Robin.” 

—

_ She pulls the last duffel from the bed of the truck, slinging the bag over her shoulder and turning to see the boy’s pitching the tents. Emma slips out of the bed of the truck, dropping down into the grass, pulling her backpack on.  _

_ “Hey Regina,” she starts, reaching out for her hand to pull her to the side of the truck. “So, if August comes, do you think you could keep Robin busy? I know that he’ll end up getting pissed at him if he has a few beers in him, and that’s a fight I want to avoid.” _

_ “Emma, I can’t promise-”  _

_ “Please,” the blonde begs. “My brother has his own temper when it comes to being protective of the people he loves, and while August hasn’t done much in the way of hurting me, he also hasn’t made me the happiest lately. I know that Robin’s going to do something and I really want it to work with August, you know? I feel something there, and I don’t want Robin to be the one to make it so that I never even have the chance.” _

_ Regina shifts the bag on her shoulder and sighs. “I’ll do my best, okay? I can’t make any promises. Your brother is who he is. He loves you Emma, he just wants to make sure you’re safe.” _

_ “I know,” Emma groans. “It’s the weird twin telepathy thing or whatever our mother calls it. He senses when I’m upset, even though I feel like I have it plastered on my face whenever I have the slightest thing bother me.” They start walking toward the lake, the sounds of Robin and Daniel talking as they pitch the third tent.  _

_ Their plan was to throw a smaller party by the lake to celebrate only having two months of school left. With the warmer temperatures, Regina had suggested using the land by the lake, which her family technically owned through the property lines of the barn, and they invited their close group of friends.  _

_ After the camp was set up with tents and coolers, the four of them changed into bathing suits and went for a swim in the lake. Regina clung to Daniel, arms wrapped around his shoulders and thighs around his waist as he swam around, while Robin and Emma took turns swinging into the lake from the rope swing they’d concocted years before.  _

_ They had grown up together, spending their childhood swimming in the lake and sneaking around the town. They had built a fort out in the woods off of her parents farm when they were 12, with the help of their fathers. Robin and Emma’s Dad was the most handy, truly teaching them how to build and logistics, while Regina and Daniel's Dad provided them with the money and the property.  _

_ Daniel taps her leg, tilting his head and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Let go babe, I’m going to go jump in.”  _

_ She smiles and untangles her legs from him. She reaches out and pulls him back in close, pressing a quick, hard kiss to his lips.  _

_ “Get a room!” Robin yells from shore, before swinging into the water next to them, landing with a big splash.  _

_ When he comes back up, Regina’s got her arms wrapped around Daniels shoulders, her lips pressed to his again.  _

_ “You’re just jealous, Locksley,” Daniel laughs.  _

_ Regina watches as Daniel swims away, back toward shore where Emma is climbing up to their rope swing. Robin swims toward her, splashing her playfully.  _

_ “Hey now,” she chides, splashing him back. “Hey, Robin, cut Emma some slack tonight, okay?” _

_ “I texted that asshole for her, doesn’t mean I have to be nice to him,” Robin rolls his eyes. “I don’t understand what she sees in him.” _

_ “None of us do, but we still love Emma all the same. Just… let her figure him out on her own. If we keep pushing, she’ll never listen.”  _

_ “Yeah, you’re right,” he sighs. “I’m still beating his ass if he hurts her.” _

_ Regina laughs, “and I’ll be there right along with you.”  _

_ Later that night Mary Margaret and David show up, along with their friend Belle. Robin builds a fire and they find themselves set up around the flame, beers in hand conversations flowing.  _

_ Regina sits between Daniels legs, leaned back against his chest. His hands have been wandering, growing more and more adventurous as the beers he consumed go to his head. She knows where their night is headed, had promised him they would sneak off for a bit, and when everyone is sufficiently distracted she tilts her head up and presses a kiss to his jaw, her hand trailing up his thigh. _

_ “Want to go find more firewood?” she whispers, giving him an understanding squeeze against his thigh.  _

_ He leans in a presses a quick kiss to her cheek, standing to help pull her up.  _

_ She tangles her fingers with his and follows him back toward the woods, turning to give Emma an understanding nod before they disappear.  _

_ When Regina comes back almost an hour later she spots August and a few of his friends collected around the fire with Emma and Robin. There are three new people, two she assumes came with August, and one she recognizes. Will had always been around, one of those that bounced from friend group to friend group. Regina had seen him with August before, but from what she’d heard around school, Will wasn’t one to make the best choices.  _

_ She walks back up toward the group, carrying a few piece of firewood in her arms. Daniel trails up behind her, carrying more pieces of wood. She turns back and glances at him, his hair disheveled and red lipstick smeared against his neck. She knows her skirt is shifted, can feel the uncomfortable stick of her zipper pressing into her side, and her underwear disappeared somewhere in the woods. She felt a bit dirty, sneaking off in the woods to get fucked against a tree, but oh did it feel good.  _

_ When she makes it back over she spots it, the bag filled with joints and little bags and other things that she didn’t want to see anywhere near her friends. The joints, sure, but the bag, filled with stark white powder reflecting off of the flames gets her. That’s not this kind of party.  _

_ She eyes Emma carefully, watching as the girl leans in and kisses August’s cheek. She’s draped over him, and from the looks of how she’s clinging, Emma can’t really stand on her own.  _

_ Robin, though, looks furious. When he spots her coming up on the group he gets up, fury etched across his face as he storms across the grass toward her. “Give me that,” he growls, taking the wood from her arms and tossing it toward the camp. “Come with me, we need to talk.” He takes her hand, pulling her behind him toward the woods.  _

_ “Robin, what’re you so upset about?”  _

_ “Emma’s fucking high, Regina. That bastard brought drugs. Not just some pot, but actual fucking drugs, and now my sister can barely remember her own name, let alone stand. I thought Daniel said this was supposed to be chill.  _

_ “I- it was, Robin, I swear. I doubt Daniel knew he was bringing it.”  _

_ “He said Daniel knew about it.”  _

_ She’s doesn’t believe it, can’t fathom that Daniel would allow August to bring drugs to their get together without at least talking to her first. That is until she catches Daniel shaking August’s hand out of the corner of her eye, and the slip of a little plastic bag between their palms.  _

—

“Regina, I, you're here. In Storybrooke- what’re you doing here?” 

“I’m sorry,” she scrambles, dropping down to the ground to collect the fallen boxes. She keeps her eyes cast down, hair falling in her eyes to avoid him, until he drops down next to her, grabbing the rolls of tape scattered from her bag. 

“No, don’t apologize. Roland bumped you- it’s okay.” 

She shakes her head, picking up the final box before standing. She holds a hand out to him for the tape, trying desperately to not stare at him. “I- can I have my tape back?” 

She can see the hurt on his face, but he places the handle of the bag on her hand. 

“Why won’t you look at me?” 

“I- just, it’s easier this way, don’t you think?” 

“Regina, I haven’t seen you in  _ years _ . How are you? Why are you here? Hows Henry?”

The tears pool in her eyes and with a shake of her head, she turns away from him, stopping for a moment. 

“Regina, what did I do?” 

She feels the first tear drop fall against her cheek, whispers a quiet, “I’m just so sorry” and walks up the street. 

She holds her composure until the front door of the mansion shuts, and she crumbles to the ground, tears falling. Her chest is heaving, the pressure on her heart making her double over and sob into her hands. She misses him, misses having her best friend to talk her life through with, and now that she’s seen him her heart is breaking all over again. 

She reaches for her phone, scrambling to press the button and pull up Mal’s number. The phone rings once and then she hears her name through the speaker. 

“Regina, babe, what’s up?” Mal asks, and Regina chokes out a cry. “Hey, hey honey it’s okay. You’re okay, Regina, you just have to breathe. What happened?” 

“I saw him,” Regina gasps out, her hands trembling. “I ran right into him, Mal.”

“Was he an ass? I swear, Regina I’ll be down there in a second to set him straight. He was always afraid of me, you know that as well as I do.”

Regina chokes out a teary laugh as she tries to tamp down her tears, to control her breathing, to feel normal instead of like her world is breaking apart. “No, no that’s the problem Mal. He was polite to me- he asked about Henry… He’s supposed to hate me, Mal. He  _ does _ hate me, he said so himself.” 

“Regina…” She hears Mal start. “Honey, you do realize that you two fought a little under 7 years ago, right? That’d be an awfully long time for someone to hold a grudge.” 

“It’d be a valid grudge to hold.”

“Right, well,” Mal sighs, “While that may be the case, you don’t know what he’s been thinking all these years either. What happened between the two of you was terrible, Regina. Your fight hurt, and not just between the two of you. We were all feeling lost that day, and while no one can fault either of your sides of the argument, you also need to realize… Robin loved you. He and I had a lot of conversations after he left, and Regina, he-”

Her tears have practically stopped, but her heart clenches at Mal’s words. “You talked with him?” 

“He called me to check up on you. Make sure you were eating and all that, nothing more on my end though. I told him that if he wanted the details, he’d have to talk to you. The two of you need to actually sit down and talk about this. Love, it’s never going to get any easier. You don’t have to be in it alone. You know Cru and I are always here for you, in anything you need. But Robin was around long before either of us were. You need him too.” 

“I’ll think on it,” she sighs, leaning back against the door frame. “I wish I could just snap my fingers, and all of this could be done so I can come home.”

“Just power through it honey, you’ll be hugging your son before you know it.” 

Regina runs a hand through her hair, brushing the last few fallen tears from her cheeks. “Thank you Mal, for everything.” 

“What kind of a best friend would I be if I didn’t talk you through a good cry?” Mal laughs. “But really, we love you, okay? Don’t forget that.” 

“I love you guys too. Bye Mal. Hug Henry really tight for me.” 

She hangs up the phone and drops her head back against the wood. Her eyes flutter closed for a moment and tries to calm her breathing, to settle the tremble of her hand. When he starts to feel stable she shuts her mind off and gets to work, tapping and assembling boxes. She works through until 6, getting through half of the first room, sorting things into piles of things to be sold, donated, or packed. 

She cleans herself up, changes into a pair of dark jeans and a sweater, pulls her jacket and hat back on and heads to Granny’s for their lasagna date. 

As soon as she settles onto the stool she and Granny lose themselves to the conversation, filling in the events from the past 8 years of their lives. She tells Granny all about Henry, her assistant job at the mayor's office, and their lives in Mist Haven. In turn she learns about the friends she left behind, Mary Margaret and David are married with a child, and another on the way, Belle and Will are engaged and have taken over the towns library. She finds it refreshing to hear about everyone, not as painful as it was that morning when she drove into town. 

When Granny slips away to go help the customers that just walked in she takes in the diner. Nothing has changed in the years since she’d left, except for a newer coffee maker set up on the countertop. The walls are still painted the same light blue hue as they were years ago, but she notices that Granny has set up a wall of photos behind the counter. She gets up, walks around the counter and scans over the pictures of everyone from the town. 

Her eyes fall on a picture of herself at the age of 17. Daniel’s on the right, his face lit up in a laugh. Emma’s between them- She’s got an arm draped over Emma’s shoulders, and Robin is on her left, but instead of looking toward the camera, his eyes are on her. 

How innocent they all look, just one year before their lives turned for better and worse. 

Granny comes up beside her and slips her hand into Regina’s tugging her toward the back. “Come here, let me show you something.” 

They go back into the office and Granny flips the switch, a glow illuminating from her desk toward a collection of picture frames in the corner. She looks at them for a second, and with a whisper of ‘ _ ah there it is _ ’, she pulls the picture up and turns back around. 

With the frame in her hands, Regina focuses on the imagine and gasps. She knows the day well, can tell through the grainy picture how worried she was, how she’d tried desperately to hide it. 

\-- 

_ She pacing in the little bathroom, her hands trembling, heart beating faster and faster in her chest.  _

_ Pregnant. She’s fucking pregnant.  _

_ Her mother is going to kill her.  _

_ She’s stupid to have been this careless, to let her stupid boyfriend bend her over the woods and take her but she was a little drunk and so, unbelievably horny and fuck all, why- why her, why now.  _

_ She can feel the panic rising slowly, that telltale tingle in her fingertips, spreading through her chest. Her breaths are getting heavier and faster, her heart swelling, chest tightening. She start to double over, gripping the side of the countertop, when a knock comes through the door.  _

_ “Regina, open up.”  _

_ “I- It’s open,” she chokes out, and seconds later Robin’s arms are wrapped around her, pulling her into a tight hug. She hears his gasp when he finally sees the pregnancy test, and she finally breaks into a sob against his shirt.  _

_ “It’ll be okay,” she hears him whisper into her hair. “You’ll get through this, however you want to. Don’t worry though, I’ll be there for you. I’ll always be there for you.” _

_ “Dan- Daniel’s going to flip,” she cries into his chest.  _

_ “No,” he whispers, but she knows he’s lying. Daniel’s not the most selfless person, and while they both knew that, she knew he was trying to be positive. Fuck positive, fuck all of it. She’s 18 and pregnant and her mother is going to absolutely kill her, bring her back just to yell at her, and kill her again.  _

_ When her tears dry she pulls away, wiping the remnants away from her face. She looks back toward to the test, still sitting on the counter, the little faded line sealing her fate.  _

_ Robin’s hand comes up and tucks her hair behind her cheek. “Hey, look at me Regina.” _

_ Regina takes a deep breath and looks up, her eyes meeting his, so full of optimism and hope and all the things she can’t imagine are possible right now.  _

_ “We’ll make a plan, okay? Me, you, Daniel and Emma. We’ve been together our entire lives, we aren’t going to let you be alone now.”  _

_ “Robin, you and I both know that Emma and Daniel… They aren’t in the right headspace. It’s not going to go well, this- he’s not going to handle this.”  _

_ “He might. And if he doesn’t, then it’ll be you and I.”  _

_ “Promise?”  _

_ “Always, Regina. I promise.”  _

\--

“This is the day I found out about Henry,” she whispers, her fingertips tracing over the photo. In the picture her head is rested on Robin’s shoulder and her hand in clasped in his. Daniel and Emma are talking animatedly across from them, so oblivious to the realization that she had just been through moments before this photo was snapped. 

Granny smiles and reaches for another picture, showing it to her. “It is. I remember because you left that damn box in the trash can, like I wouldn’t have noticed. But this, this one breaks my heart. Did ‘til now though, now that I’ve seen you, know how you’re doing.” 

Regina looks down and smiles brightly at the picture. She’s standing in the center of the diner, her hand folded around her little baby bump. The smile on her face is the happier than she’s looked for a long time. “This is right before we left,” she chokes out. “I look so happy though.” 

“You told me, the night before you kids ran away, that you just wanted what was best for him. Insisted, too, on calling your bump a him even though it was far too early. You didn’t tell me you were leaving, but I could tell. Your families were livid but I didn’t blame you kids for wanting to run off. Being here, bringing Henry into this town with your mother’s influence… that would have been worse off for you both in the long run.” 

“I just knew,” Regina laughs. “I read all of those baby books about how you carry being an indicator, and I just knew that he was a little boy. I did too, want what’s best for him. I still do now, even though I feel like I’m not giving him enough.” 

“You’ve loved that little boy since the moment you took that test, no matter how scared you were. And this now, with Robin. You two were inseparable growing up, Regina. It’s the same thing. Don’t think about how afraid you are, think about how much love you have, and how much you had for him. He’s the same way.” 

Regina throws her arms around Granny in a tight hug with a quiet ‘ _ thank you’ _ coming from her. “I’ll bring Henry here soon, Granny, promise. You’ll love meeting him. He’s just like me when I was younger, but he absolutely inherited Daniel’s imagination.” 

“I’m holding you to it.” 

They find themselves going through pictures for another hour or so, laughing and reminiscing about all of the ridiculous things she, Robin, Daniel and Emma managed to do in that diner as kids. When Regina finally steps back out of the diner, she sees the snow has begun to fall again, and quietly makes her way home. 

The next morning she wakes early, brews herself a pot of coffee and gets to work. The plan was for her father to fly into town in 4 days, and her mother in 6 so they don’t have to see each other, and her goal for herself is to have it all finished before then so they can come, sign the papers to post the house for sale, and leave. 

She turns up music through the homes speaker system and starts packing, dancing about as she goes. She comes to a stop when there’s a sharp knock against the front door, turning to stare at the black wood. 

The knock comes again and she walks over, pulling the door open 

“Mom!” Henry yells, launching himself at her, wrapping her into a tight hug. Her arms come up instinctively around him, squeezing him back. 

“I- what’re you guys doing here?”

“I know you said you wanted to do this by yourself,” Mal starts, “but there’s no reason to have to. We’re your family babe, we’re here for you.” 

She smiles, mouths a ‘ _ thank you _ ’ at Cruella and Mal before staring down at her son. Her grin brightens and she squeezes him again, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. 

“Aunt Mal and Aunt Ella said you were stressed out,” Henry interjects. 

“I was,” she sighs, carding her fingers through his hair. “But you’re here now, and that’ll make this all better. How long can you stay?” She asks, looking back up at her friends. 

“We have to head back tonight, I have a presentation at the hospital tomorrow, but we did speak with Henry’s teachers and he got all his work so he can stay, if you’re okay with it.” 

“Please Mom,” he begs. “I promise you that I’ll do all of my homework. And extra homework after that, just to make sure I learn it all. I want to stay though. You’ve never let me come to Storybrooke before. I want to see where you grew up.” 

She eyes Cru and Mal carefully, but ultimately nods. “I guess you can stay. But you’ve got to help, okay? We need to get this house all packed up before Grandpa and Grandma come.” 

“Yes!” he yells, and rushes into the house. She hears him yell ‘ _ this place is huge! _ ’ from somewhere near the kitchen. 

“You know I’m a little mad at you, but all in all, thank you. I don’t think I’d make it these last few days without him.” 

“We thought so,” Mal smiles, leaning in to give her a hug. “You’re already a super-mom Regina, you don’t need to go about doing everything by yourself.” 

\--

_ “Ow, ow, fucking fuck all of this, I swear to god I’m never having sex again,” Regina leans forward and cries out again. Her chest is heaving, sweat pouring from her brow. Her body is in pain, an excruciating ache through her muscles. “I can’t do this,” she cries to the nurse in the room with her. She’s been in labor for about 9 hours now, with no chance of her son coming into this world anytime soon.  _

_ Minutes later, a warm hand encases hers, fingers twining. She looks up at Robin and smiles, about to plead her thanks when another contraction rips through her. “Agh, where the fuck is Daniel?”  _

_ “He’s outside the room, with your Dad. He’s- I tried to get him to come in but he was scared, so I told him I would. I can’t leave my best friend alone in this. You’re having a kid! This is time to celebrate. But you know, you could get the epidural.”  _

_ “No,” she shakes her head. “I want Daniel to come in- no drugs. I- I can handle it.” Her contraction subsides and she collapses back against the hospital bed. Her eyes close for a moment, taking the peace between the contractions. She knows it’s true, knows that no matter how much she wants to, she needs to come to understand the facts in front of her.  _

_ “He’s not coming, is he.”  _

_ Robin takes a deep breath and shakes his head, squeezing her hand.  _

_ “He told your Dad that he couldn’t handle it. I tried to talk to him, Regina, I promise. But he told me that he didn’t know how to be a Dad- that he was too young to be a Dad, and he ran off. That was about an hour ago.”  _

_ “He’s a bastard.” _

_ Robin nods and leans in, pressing a kiss to her forehead.  _

_ Four hours and countless contractions later, her son is finally placed in her arms.  _

_ He’s squishy and so, unbelievably small. It’s hard for her to imagine that someone could truly be that small, but there he is, her Henry, tucked safely in the little blue blanket the nurses put him in after they cleaned him.  _

_ He’s asleep in her arms and she can’t help but continue to stare at him, with how beautiful and perfect he is. Her father headed back to his hotel room to take a shower, and Robin is asleep, his head propped against the wall, curled up in the chair in the corner.  _

_ She vaguely registers the door opening, looks up to see Daniel stumble into the room.  _

_ “What’re you doing here?” she whispers, hesitant to wake Henry or Robin. She knows this will end in a fight, knows very well that Daniel has no concept of what is going on right now. His eyes are bloodshot and his hands are shaky, the typical telltale signs that he’s on his own version of a bender, and the last thing she wants to deal with right now. _

_ “What do you mean ‘what am I doing here’ Regina? That’s my son. I’m here to hold him.”  _

_ “Like hell you are,” she practically growls, curling baby Henry toward her chest. “Get out of here, Daniel. Come back when you aren’t whacked out.”  _

_ Daniel shakes his head, sluggishly walks toward her. “Come on, Regina, just let me hold him. I’m fine, I swear.” _

_ “No, no Daniel you’re not fine.” She can feel the angry tears settling in her eyes, wants nothing more for Robin to wake up and get him out. “You’re high, Daniel. And regardless of how ‘fine’ you think you are, you’re not. You need to go, you need to be sober if you want to come by. I’m not letting you around my son if you can’t keep yourself together. You only think you’re fine because this is your new normal, but let me tell you- the Daniel I fell in love with is buried somewhere in there right now. And until he’s back, I don’t want you anywhere near us.” _

_ He starts to argue with her, complains that he can’t be expected to be perfect all the time, when Robin rouses behind him. She can see the anger flash across his face, and he rises from the chair and claps a hand over Daniel’s shoulder.  _

_ “Get out of here man.” _

_ “Mind your own fucking business, Locksley. This has nothing to do with you.”  _

_ Robin’s grip tightens, and she can see the anger spreading as his face gets red. “I don’t think you understood me Daniel. I wasn’t asking you to go. Get out.”  _

_ “You have no fucking right-” Daniel starts, turning back toward Robin, when Robin lifts a hand and wraps it tightly around Daniel’s forearm.  _

_ Robin drags him to the door and pushes him out, shutting the door behind him. She can’t tell what they’re saying from the mumble through the door, but she knows that Robin is angry, can tell from his shadow that he’s looming over Daniel. Daniel’s arms go up in the air and he turns away. _

_ Henry starts to cry and she gets distracted, whispers quiet soothing words to him until he settles back down, his little fists curled against his face. Moments later Robin comes back in, runs his hand over his face and starts off with the most unnecessary thing she’s heard.  _

_ “I’m so sorry.”  _

_ “No,” she shakes her head, shifting against the hospital bed to sit up a little straighter. “Robin without you being here, I would be alone. I- I don’t think i’ll ever really be able to express how thankful I am for you being here for me.” _

_ “I feel like if I hadn’t had been here earlier, Daniel may have been okay.” _

_ She shakes her head again and reaches a free hand out to him. “Robin, the only time Daniel has shown any interest in this baby is when you or Emma are around, so he can keep up the appearance. He doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want anything to do with me or Henry, and if that’s the way it is then so be it. We’re better off without him, and we’re lucky that we have you.” _

_ He comes over to her, takes her hand and squeezes lightly. “Thank you, Regina. I love you guys.”  _

_ “We love you too. Hey, do you want to hold him?”  _

_ She passes Henry to him and he lets out a little gasp, cradling the baby in his arms. “He’s so tiny.”  _

_ “I know,” she smiles. “Isn’t he perfect?”  _

\--- 

Henry’s the first to suggest lunch after they’ve finished packing the second room. Regina had put them right to work, turned her music back up and danced around the house with her family. Mal had been right, having someone there with her made the whole process a little less awful. 

They clean up what they’re doing and bundle up to head out, talking the short walk to Granny’s. The snow has finally stopped but there’s a beautiful layer of white fluff along the ground on their walk. Henry has his hand tucked safely into hers, his head spinning as he takes in everything on the main road. 

“Did you like living here Mom?”

“For the most part,” she smiles. “When I was a kid I had a very close group of friends that made this place amazing. And then some things happened and we lost touch, but all in all I got you, and Mal and Cruella so it ended up working out in the end.”

He nods at that, and they walk up to Granny’s, entering the door. Regina pulls her hat off and then her sons, tucking them both into her jacket pocket. She looks up at eyes Granny, gives her a shy smile and wraps an arm around Henry’s shoulders. “Henry, I want you to meet someone very important to me, and to Storybrooke.” She walks up with him, looking up at Granny. 

“Henry, this is Granny. She’s the person who practically raised me. Granny, this is my son, Henry.” 

She beams with pride has Henry holds his hand out and stands up a little straighter. “It’s very nice to meet you,” he whispers out, still a bit shy, but it melts away when Granny shakes his hand. 

“It’s very nice to meet you as well, Henry. Your mother has said nothing but wonderful things about you.” 

He blushes and ducks his head, turning himself into Regina’s side. “Mom,” he groans.

Regina smiles and introduces Mal and Cruella as well, and then they find themselves in a booth, burgers ordered. Henry has continued to ask her questions about the town, wondering everything about her childhood that she’d managed to not tell him after all these years. She was nervous about telling him, didn’t want him to know how messed up her family was, how messed up  _ she _ was, but he doesn’t seem to mind. 

She had promised herself when Henry was young that she wouldn’t lie to him. The time came when she realized that Daniel was gone, out of their lives forever, and while she didn’t want to tell him the truth, she couldn’t lie to him either. 

But she did dread the times her son brought up questions about his drug addicted father. 

Henry knew that his Dad was sick, but that was about the extent of it. She would tell him one day. As he became older, his questions grew from ‘ _ why don’t I get to make a Father’s Day card’ _ to deeper though, such as ‘ _ why didn’t my Dad want me’.  _ That one broke her heart, and she knew that her reassurance of her love from him did nothing to tamp down that question in his mind. 

She’d asked the same thing of her mother so many times as a kid. 

After they eat their burgers, Granny pulls a stool up and chats with them, telling stories about their time in Storybrooke that have Henry laughing hysterically. Her granddaughter Ruby had gotten to town that morning, and was busy scattering around the restaurant to give her a break. 

“So, Mal and Cruella, how did you two meet Regina?” Granny asks. 

Mal gives Regina a sharp look, letting her take the lead on what was not the most natural friendship. 

“So,” Regina shares, “I actually met Mal in grief counseling. And then Cruella and Mal met through their work at the hospital.”

“Grief counseling?” Granny asks. 

Regina nods and distracts herself for a moment, running her fingers through Henry’s heart. “Mmm yeah,” she trails off. “When Emma died.” 

—

_ The whole world had felt dark for days now.  _

_ Robin hadn’t spoken since he found her body, Daniel was missing, and she had to try and hold herself together for Henry’s sake. But when Emma died, their world went quiet.  _

_ There hadn’t been a time in their lives where it was the four of them against the world, but now there were only three. She’d practically locked herself in the house, just her and her son curled up on the couch, watching as the rain pelted against the windows.  _

_ The funeral is today, and she isn’t ready. She had to be ready, though. Had to get herself together for Robin’s sake, for his parents sake. It wasn’t fair. Emma was gone too soon and she had been so young, only 20 and so unaware of the unfortunate reality that her life had become.  _

_ Robin was the one to find Emma’s body on the kitchen floor of their shared apartment. She’d been sick for a long time, the addiction taking over her body and mind faster than any of them had anticipated. Robin had tried to save her, tried to revive her but it was too late, she was already gone.  _

_ Regina gets herself dressed on autopilot, pulling herself into a black dress with a black hat, and black overcoat. She’d dressed Henry as well and off they went, back to Robin’s apartment to ensure that he was there, that he was functioning.  _

_ She doesn’t bother to knock on the door, just walks in with Henry in her arms.  _

_ “Robin?”  _

_ “Go away, Regina.”  _

_ She finds him on the floor of their living room, propped up against the wall. There’s a full bottle of beer in his hands but he doesn’t smell of alcohol, and he’s dressed in a finely pressed suit, much to her surprise.  _

_ “Come on, love. We need to get going.”  _

_ He shakes his head but he won’t look at her, his gaze cast down at the beer bottle. “You know, I was going to drink this. I figured there’s got to be some appeal to it, right? If the feeling of being that inebriated killed my sister then maybe there was something to it that I didn’t understand. So I opened it, but I can’t bring myself to drink it. What the hell is the point? What of this, what of the drugs did she find that appealing that she did so much it actually fucking killed her?” He’s crying now, the tears steadily coming, but his voice never once wavers.  _

_ “I don’t know,” she whispers, sinking down against the wall to sit next to him. “I don’t know if we’ll ever really know what happened to her, Robin. But I do know that sitting here, constantly wondering about it isn’t going to make it any better. It’s not going to make her come back.” Saying the works makes the tears come again, and she drops her head against his shoulder. “I miss her.” _

_ “I miss her too.”  _

_ The funeral is long and heartbreaking. Robin cries into her shoulder, his body wracking with silent sobs as the preacher talks about family and more sad things she can’t bear to listen to. Regina clutches her son to her chest and feels the tears against her cheeks.  _

_ The next week she leaves Henry with her father and drags Robin to therapy. She found a group counseling session for people with loss stemming from addiction relations, and immediately signed them up. He was hesitant at first, but with a promise that if he truly wasn’t comfortable then they could leave, she finally convinced him to go.  _

_ In their first session they were quiet, listening more than talking about how they felt, but one story draws them in. A blonde woman spoke third and Regina was fascinated by her story. She and her girlfriend had become addicted to drugs at the same time, and while Mal had went to rehab and got clean, her girlfriend Anna hadn’t been so lucky. It was odd, but their pain felt the same, and shortly after that first meeting they became friends, spending time together outside of the meetings.  _

_ She, Mal, and Robin found healing through one another over the year after Emma died. With time, they they started to come into understanding their grief. Mal met Cruella through her work at the hospital in their Human Resources department, and their friend group grew by one more. Mal and Cruella were married within the following year, with Regina and Robin as their witnesses and a one year old Henry as their ring bearer.  _

\--

“We’ve been friends ever since. It’s been wonders having a family in Mist Haven, especially with Henry getting older. They’re my lifeline.” 

Mal reaches across the table and squeezes her hand. “You’re the same for us.”

Granny smiles and steals one of Regina’s fries off of her plate. “You know, when you kids left I was worried that you would be all alone out there. But i’m glad to know that in all of this, you managed to come out good. You’re a good person, Regina. I’m proud of you.”

She starts to give Granny her thanks when the bell over the door rings, and a flash of dark hair covered in snow walks into the diner, holding hands with a little boy trailing a toy sword behind him. 

Of course she can never sit with her back to the door, and the second Robin walks in their eyes meet and she feels her stomach sink. Because, true to his nature, the next thing his eyes fall on is Henry, who is busy in a contest with Cruella to see how many fries he can fit in his mouth. 

When he looks back at her the hurt and longing in his eyes crushes her. 

She has to talk with him, she knows that, but then he’s walking past her and toward the counter. He lifts his son onto the stool and then sits next to him, whispering something that makes the little boy, Roland, giggle infectiously. 

Granny’s eyeing her cautiously, as are Mal and Cruella. 

“What?” She practically growls at them. “Could you all make this any more obvious?” 

“Make what obvious?” Henry asks, looking up from his burger. He looks around and she sucks in a breath when his eyes fall on Robin. “Hey, Mom, isn’t that the guy from the picture in your room? From when I was a baby.” 

She wills herself to hold it together, nodding once to give herself time. “Yeah, honey that’s Robin. Would, do you want to go over and meet him?” 

“Yeah!” Henry calls out, practically pushing her out of the booth. He rushes over to Robin and pats him on the shoulder, waiting patiently for Robin to turn around. He does, though, and her son rushes out, “Hi! I’m Henry. My mom has a picture of you and me in her bedroom, but I’ve never met you before. Well, I have, clearly, but I don’t remember.” He sticks his hand out to shake Robins, ever the polite boy she raised him to be.

Oh, perfect, that’s how he starts this. 

“Um, hi there.” Robin chokes out, shaking his hand. “I did know you, when you were very little though. It’s been a long time, Henry. But I will say, you look so grown up.” 

Henry’s chest puffs out and he beams. As she comes up next to him she wraps an arm around his shoulders, and he looks up at her, so proud of himself. “Mom, I met Robin.” 

“I see that,” she smiles, looking from her son to her best friend. “He looks at that picture a lot, you know. I told him about you… How you were there for us when no one else was.” 

Robin nods, smiling at her and then back down to Henry. “It’s very nice to meet you formally Henry. I guess it wasn’t much fair of me to let your Mum have to tell you all about me when you’d never met me before, now was it?” 

He’s still a gentleman, giving her son the time he’s longed for since he was a boy, when his son chimes in. 

“Hi! I’m Roland. I’ve never seen you before though.” 

Robin is still smiling as he introduces them. “Roland, this is Regina. She and I were friends growing up. And then this is her son Henry. I’d met him too, but way back when he was only a baby.” 

“Oh,” Roland nods. He hesitates a moment and turns toward Regina. “I’m sorry I hit you with my sword yesterday. I was only trying to get the dragons.” 

“All is forgiven,” she grins at him, and he ducks his head in a blush. “Fighting dragons is always important for a little knight. You must keep people safe.” 

“Exactly!” Roland yells. “See, Papa, I told you. Dragons.” 

Robin laughs and Henry quickly gets into a conversation about dragons with Roland. 

She’s uncomfortable now, nervous that their children are deep into a conversation that doesn’t involve them. Regina can see Robin look over her shoulder, and his face brightens again. 

“Is that Mal and Cruella?” 

She turns, nodding. “Yeah, they brought Henry up for me from Mist Haven. I- apparently my last phone call made it sound like I shouldn’t be here alone.” 

He stands and his hand comes to her forearm, squeezing lightly. “We aren’t ending this conversation here, Regina. I- I need to go say hello though. Granny will still hit me with that wooden spoon of hers if I’m not polite to guests.” 

“She is pretty terrifying still.”

She stays with the boys, watching as he makes his way over to their table. Cruella is out first, wrapping him up into a hug. She’s only half listening to their children though, can’t help but stare at his face as he hugs their friends. 

Mal’s next, whacking him lightly upside the head after giving him his hug. She can tell from Mals face that he’s being scolded, but their voices are so low that she can’t make out anything being said. He glances over his shoulder at her once, turning back quickly when he realizes that she’s intently watching them. 

He gives them both hugs once more before making his way back over to her. “So, can we talk?” 

“I have to get Henry back to the house, and Mal and Cruella have to head back tonight to go to the hospital. I’ll- I’m in town for a few days, though, packing up my parents house. We could get together one night before they get here?” 

“There’s a lot that we need to catch up on,” he starts. “I think there’s also a lot of explanations that I owe you as well.” 

She shakes her head. “You don’t owe me anything, Robin. What happened a long time ago happened… I deserved it, and you deserved to move on.” 

“Regina, that’s not what I mean. You don’t-” 

She gets up, tangling her fingers with his to give him a comforting squeeze. “It’s okay, I promise. It’s been a long time. But thank you, for meeting Henry. I know he’s going to talk about this for months. He gets excited really easily.” 

Robin just stares at her for a moment, but she gives him and Roland a goodbye and ushers Henry away from his new friend. She can feel Robin staring at them as she pays their bill and say their goodbye to Granny. On the way out she gives him one last smile, and a little wave. 

They make it back to the house before it starts to flurry again. Mal and Cruella get home, determined to make it back before it’s dark. They head out with hugs and  _ thank you’s _ , getting back on the road as the snow starts to slow back down. 

After they’re gone Regina and Henry work toward another room, going through her childhood mementos. He’s full of questions, asking more and more about how she liked growing up there, the thing she enjoyed. He hasn’t mentioned Robin yet, or her story about Emma, but she can feel it coming. Going through her old room starts to bring back some of the happier memories, ones that she is eager to share with her son. His excitement toward the whole thing is contagious, and she can’t help but laugh along with him at her stories. 

Around 6 they break for dinner, each getting a pizza and salads. They eat in silence for a few minutes, before Regina finally breaks. “So, your questions seem to have slowed down significantly.” 

He nods, finishes chewing his pizza and washes it down with water. “I do have another question, but- I don’t want you to get upset.” 

“Oh Henry, I won’t be upset. You’re welcome to ask me anything you want to, you know that. I’ll always try and answer the best that I can.” 

He rummages through his pocket and pulls out a picture, sliding it across the counter to her. She recognizes it well, had stashed it in her room when she was a teenager. It’s from one random summer day they spent at the lake. Regina and Daniel are hugging, smiling brightly at the camera. Next to them, Robin is lifting Emma up, and from the look on her face Emma is yelling something at her brother that wouldn’t be appropriate to tell her son. 

“This is you,” he points. “And here’s Robin. So, does that make this Emma?” 

“That’s her.” 

“So…” he trails off, “I look like that guy.” 

“That’s your Dad, Henry, when he was younger. I didn’t really have any pictures of him around from before he was sick, but this was him, when I loved him, at least.” 

Henry’s silent for a moment, tracing his finger over the picture. “Why did you leave Storybrooke?” 

She takes a deep breath, reaching out to grasp at his hand. “Let me start this story off by telling you that I love you. Never forget that, okay?” 

“I know.” 

“Okay,” she exhales. “When I was younger, Robin, Emma, Daniel and I were all best friends. Inseparable, really. We did everything together, and when I was 18 I realized that I was pregnant with you. I got scared, and your Grandma and Grandpa were upset with me because I was so young, so one day the four of us got together and decided we needed to leave. It was scary, especially because we were so young, but Robin promised that we’d always be there for each other. We packed up our things and snuck out in the middle of the night, in our pick-up out there.”

“ _ You _ ran away? But you always follow rules. You wouldn’t run away.”

“That’s true, but yes, we ran away. It wasn’t the smartest decision I’ve never made, but I wanted what was best for you, and at that time Storybrooke wasn’t it. But what Robin and I hadn’t realized was that Daniel and Emma were sick. We knew, for a while, that there was something wrong. But it was a lot worse than we thought. After you were born, your Dad got scared and disappeared for a bit. And then, when we thought it couldn’t get any more lonely, Emma passed away. Daniel came back for a little bit, but then he got scared again and he left too. So then, it was just me and Robin, and you of course.” 

Henry listens intently, taking in everything she says. After a few minutes, he finally gets out a  quiet, “It makes sense. I’m sorry that you had to go through that Mom.” 

She shakes her head and wraps him in a tight hug, pulling him over into her lap. He lets out a yelp and a laugh, squirming against her before settling into the hug. “I’m not sorry,” she whispers, pressing a kiss into his hair. “Everything I did, I would do all over if I knew it meant you’d be happy.” 

She wants to encourage his questions but she knows it was a lot to handle, especially at the age of 8. He returns her hug and drops the subject, goes back to talking about the house, asking her questions about statues and paintings and all other things she wouldn’t expect him to show an interest in. 

By 8 he’s yawning through his sentences, and by 9 she has him getting changed into his pajamas and into the bed in her old room. He’s exhausted, fighting her on sleep until she pulls the blankets up around him and presses a kiss to his forehead. As she starts out of the room, she hears him mumble and turns around. 

“Mom,” he starts, “I like it here.” 

“You do?” 

He nods with another yawn, cuddling himself into the bed. “Yeah, it’s better here than Mist Haven. Everyone here is really nice. And you seem really happy here.”

It floors her, his admission, but before she can respond his eyes are closed and he’s out. 

—

She gets back downstairs and curls up on the couch with a water and her tablet, ready to watch some Netflix to get her tired, when there comes a knock on the door. 

Hesitating, she gets up and sees Robin’s truck outside of the window, so she opens the door. He looks frazzled, hair discheleved, like he’s been running his hands through it. His clothes however, are rugged, and she silently praises whatever woodland phase this is because  _ damn,  _ he can pull of a flannel. 

“Regina,” he starts, coming into the house. “We need to talk.” He’s frustrated and she can’t blame him for how he feels, but anxiety pools in her gut thinking of the conversation they’re about to have. 

She shakes her head. “I told you earlier, Robin, this agreement is the best situation. I know what you’re going to say, I get it. I’ll be out of here soon, I promise you. But honestly, Robin, I can’t handle the emotions. Seeing you, being in the same town as you- I don’t want to make this worse.” 

“What agreement? The one you created on your own, without listening to anything I say? Would you just fucking listen to me for one second?” His face is red, and he looks more hurt than anything, though she can tell his anger is still there. “Why do you think that I hate you? Regina, I don’t hate you at all, I could never hate you.”  

He does, though. He said so on that horrible night 7 years ago, right before he left. She needs to ask him about his time away, how he found himself back in Storybrooke with a son, but she’s too angry that he’s contradicting everything he had said. 

“No, no don’t do that to me Robin. It’s not like I wasn’t in the room when you told me that you hated me. Pretty sure I heard that part of our conversation loud and clear. That, and the fact that you walked out of the apartment and didn’t come back. You promised, you told me that you would never leave me, that you’d never leave Henry. But you did, and you were gone and I was so, fucking, alone.” 

\--

_ The funeral had been hard on them all.  _

_ The past few months, however, had been brutal, and while their group counseling was working, she could tell that Robin was still in pain. A pain she understood, but not as well as she wanted to. He’d lost his twin, and it was a separation that no one could understand, nothing they could do soothed him. His anger was growing, to the point where his mother had called her, asking for her to try and talk some sense into him, to just get him to therapy on his own. She’s tried explaining that without him wanting to actively go, therapy wouldn’t do anything, but his mother had begged for her to at least try.  _

_ When she brought it up though, it spiraled down into a fight that she hadn’t fathomed was possible.  _

_ “You know, Regina, if you and Daniel hadn’t have had that fucking party we wouldn’t even be here.”  _

_ Her heart stopped as she stood across from him. He looked awful, the broken shell of her best friend. His beard had grown unruly and though he smelled clean, he looked dirty and broken, and he smelled of whiskey. “Stop it, Robin. You’re not hearing yourself. Your mom and I, we just want you to be okay. She wants you to go get some help, please. This isn’t you.”  _

_ “No,” he shakes his head. “This is me, you all just can’t accept that because this is all your fucking fault. Without Daniel, without all of that bullshit with August, Emma would have never gotten addicted to drugs and she’d still be alive.” _

_ “Robin, listen, I know that Emma’s drug problem came out of nowhere but this- Look, I don’t need you blaming me too.”  _

_ “Why not? Because you got pregnant? Because you’re sad too? No, this doesn’t get to be another Regina Mills pity party. My sister is dead, Regina. Dead, gone, forever. Daniel’s still out there somewhere, probably doing line off the back of a toilet like the piece of shit he is, but you can get him back. Emma’s never coming back.”  _

_ “Shut up! Shut up, shut up Robin. I know- I know that this is my fault, and fuck you for bringing it back up. You think I don’t blame myself for all of this? This is entirely my fault. The party, August, getting pregnant, moving away from Storybrooke. If that night hadn’t happened our lives never would have changed. One night twisted our entire lives upside down, and it was all my idea. So I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I ruined everything, and I’m sorry that you hate me. But dammit Robin, this isn’t you. Even if you want nothing to do with me, you need to go. Be better for your mom, for yourself. You’re still alive, and the guilt behind that eats at me constantly so I can’t imagine what it’s doing to you. But you can’t just sit here and let it take over your life, because I swear Robin, if you die too I don’t know if I would make it. You’re the only person I have left. Remember what we said, when Henry was born? I’m never leaving you.” There are tears welling in her eyes as she yells at him, hoping, just maybe, that he may understand.  _

_ But when he turns his back, slams the door of her apartment closed with a sharp ‘Fuck you’, she realizes that her life as she knew it was over.  _

\-- 

“I was broken without you, Robin. You left and my whole world crumbled.” 

He’s staring at her, eyes never wavering from her heavy gaze. This was what she wanted to avoid, telling him how his leaving affected her, especially when she got what she deserved. 

She doesn’t expect him to move toward her though. 

His lips are soft against hers. His fingers tangle through her hair, pulling her close to him into a hard kiss. 

She’s shocked, body tense until he slides his lips and kisses her again, a bit less forced and more passionate. She lifts her arms around him, hand coming up to curl around his neck, melting into the kiss. His lips are perfect, melding against hers again and again until they run out of air and she breaks from him. 

He presses his forehead to hers, deep breaths coming through steadily. “I’m sorry, Regina. I didn’t- If I stayed here it would have killed me.” 

“I’m sorry too. If I hadn’t-” 

“No, no love don’t. None of this is your fault, and I am so unbelievably sorry I ever made you think that. Regina, if I had known that after all these years, seeing you again would make me feel like this- gods I never would have left. For as long as I’ve known you, Regina Mills, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you.” 

She starts to argue with him, insist that she should be apologizing to him when he kisses her again. It’s as soft and innocent as their last kiss at first, but she drags her hand down the side of his arm and presses more into him. Her mouth parts and tongue slides against his lips, deepening the kiss. 

The second she deepens the kiss a spark electrifies their movements. He pushes her back against the railing of the staircase, which gives her the fleeting realization that they haven’t made it past the foyer of the house. His hand comes up against her side, fingers trailing the edge of her sweatpants as their lips move against one anothers. 

She breaks the kiss on a gasp and his lips drag down the side of her jaw to her neck, pressing little kisses and nips against her throat. The moan she lets out is deep, her hands coming up to grip at his shoulders, holding him to her. She’s vaguely aware of the heat pooling low, the tingle up her back as he drags his hands up around her, pressing the pads of his fingers into the small of her back. 

He finds her lips again for a hard kiss, but break the kiss and steps back from her, puts just enough space between them that he’s still got his hands on her back. Her chest is rising and falling rapidly but she can’t help but stare at him, at his lips. 

“I never meant to make you feel that way,” he starts. “Regina, I’ve loved you since we were 12 years old. There was this one day when we were at school, and you were standing on the tips of your toes telling at David because-”

“When he made Mary Margaret cry for giving Katherine that Valentines card,” she laughs. “She was so upset but too scared to go tell him how she felt.” 

“So you did it for her,” he chuckles. “You were so much smaller than him but he looked terrified, and he kept apologizing. He had one for Mary Margaret too, in his backpack, but he was afraid of giving to her.” 

“I told him to man up and tell her how he felt.” 

He nods, stepping back toward her. “You did, and they got married 9 years later.” 

She lifts a hand and rests it against his shoulder. “You gave me a Valentine that year too. It had all these little hand drawn hearts on it, with arrows through them. I still have it, somewhere upstairs. I came across it earlier and it got me thinking. It made me feel loved, which I’d so desperately wanted my entire life. You were the first person that made me feel like this town had anything good to it. Like no matter what, I could always come back and this place would feel like a home.” 

She leans in and presses a lingering kiss to his lips, weaving her fingers through his hair to hold him close. Breaking the kiss, she presses her forehead to his. 

“We spent so long without each other, and I hated it. This, you and me, it’s always been here. We’d just been to stupid to realize it when we were 18.” 

“Our lives changed,” he nods, kissing her once again. “We’ve healed, and while it was terrible to do that apart, I wouldn’t change it. Because although our lives were hard, and we went through more rough patches than anyone should have to, it brought us our sons and I would never change that.  And it’s okay though, because even through this weird, twisted fate, it still led me back to you.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note the rating change of the fic!

Robin had left the night before, had to get back to Roland and relieve Granny of her impromptu babysitting duties, so he had kissed her goodnight and promised that they would get together in the morning for breakfast, to have a proper talk.

They needed to talk, she knew that. So much was still left unsaid between them, and the kiss had been unexpected, as had the declaration of feelings. She’d always known how she felt about him, knew that Robin was it for her from the moment he held baby Henry in his arms and her heart had swelled, but hearing him declare that he felt the same way was more than she had expected.

They had kissed a bit longer, spent a quiet moment in her foyer before he gave her one final kiss and snuck back out the front door.

The next morning she woke, watched from her bed as the sun rose over Storybrooke. Henry ran into her room within the first hour of the day, climbed into her bed with a quiet _hey mom_ , and cuddled up into her side.

He fell back asleep for a bit, his head buried into her pillow, soft snores coming from him lips. She never thought she could love someone so much, loved watching her son grow, even though he would always be her little boy. Her fingers carded though his hair as he slept, watching carefully as his chest rose and fell.

It’s peaceful, lying here in her childhood home with her son. She never expected that she would end up back here, in the house she had spent so much time avoiding, especially with Henry. Her mother had made it adamantly clear that they weren’t welcome here when she found out that she was pregnant, and that was that. She’d packed up her things and left for good. Yet 8 years later she finds herself questioning her resistance to the town she’d been so quick to run away from.

She feels Henry begin to stir next to her, his arms stretching out to push into her side. He lets out a yawn and his eyes flutter open, slowly.

“Morning sleepy head,” she whispers, cuddling him into her side.

He yawns again, his arm wrapping around her. “Morning mom.”

“Did you sleep alright?”

“Your old bed is lumpy,” he laughs, stretching. They lay in silence again for a moment, before Henry shifts and sits up, looking at her. “Mom, I have a question.”

She shifts up to sit, leans against the headboard and turns toward him. “What’s up kid?”

“Why don’t we live here? I know that you said Grandma didn’t want you to have me, and that we had to leave… but why now? You seem happy here, with Granny and Robin, even though that was a little awkward. But- we can live here, you know, if you want. I don’t have that many friends in Mist Haven anyway, and it seems like you like it here.”

Regina sucks in a breath, can feel her heart skip a beat at her son’s words. She pulls him over into a hug, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “Oh Henry,” she starts, “I wish it were that easy.”

“But why isn’t it?” he asks, his face pressed into her shoulder. “Grandma and Grandpa are selling this house, and they aren’t living here anymore. We can come back and you can be around all your friends. You looked really happy yesterday.”

“There were moments that I was,” she starts, pulling back to look at him. “But Henry, our lives are in Mist Haven. I wouldn’t want to uproot that. What about your Aunt Mal and Aunt Ella?”

“They can come too, if they want. There’s got to be a hospital here, right? And Mom, _Robin_ is here,” he emphasizes. “You like Robin.”

She chuckles at that, if he only knew how much, and runs a hand through his bedhead. “Robin is here, isn’t he.”

Henry nods and squirms with a giggle when she runs a hand over his shoulder. “I’m just saying Mom,” he starts, “I’d be okay with living here and learning where you grew up.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. But meanwhile, why don’t you go get a shower and clean up, and I’ll start breakfast?”

“Can we go to Granny’s again? She told me yesterday that she has french toast that would beat yours.”

Regina’s eyebrow raises, and she smirks. “Did she now? Did she fail to mention that she’s the one who taught me how to make french toast in the first place?”

His eyes widen and he scrambles out of bed. “See, now I’ve _gotta_ know whose is better.” He rushes off down the hall, and moments later she hears the bathroom door close and the shower kick on.

She stretches out for a moment, eyes cast up toward the ceiling, taking in everything that Henry said. She can’t lie that it’s crossed her mind, moving back to Storybrooke. It had always been a fleeting dream for her when Henry was younger, what would it be like to go home? To be back with people who knew her, who understood that she wasn’t the irresponsible teenage parent that she felt she was. But it wasn’t a possibility that she’d ever imagined could be a reality, especially now.

Their life was established in Mist Haven. She had a decent job, was working her way up to take over and run for Mayor whenever Glass finally retired. Henry was in a good school, and granted, he didn’t have many friends, but he was getting there. Then there was Mal and Cruella, who had taken her in when she was nothing but a heartbroken 20 year old, with a two year old and no one to lean on. She couldn’t just leave them behind, couldn’t fathom her life without them.

But Henry was right, she did secretly miss parts of Storybrooke, even if she loathed to admit it.

Robin was her biggest determining factor.

What if he didn’t mean it? What if their moment the night before had been nothing but a release of old, pent up emotions that they’d never gotten out? A manifestation of their shared grief over Emma’s death, mixed with how close they’d been growing up, and topped with the rush of seeing each other after all this time?

It was one thing to get out their emotions in one- not one, more like 15, passionate kisses. It was another to move back home in hopes that the man she’d loved since she was 12 would take her, regardless of all of the shit they’d put one another through for years.

She’d always dreamed of it though, the ability to take this hell and turn it into a real home. Maybe she could? Maybe her son’s intuition wasn’t too far fetched?

Regina gets out of bed and shuffles into the bathroom. She brushes her teeth and hair and pulls on a pair of leggings and a light green, tunic length long sleeve. She hears the water cut off in Henry’s bathroom, then the stomp of his feet down the hall and toward the bedroom. There’s a few slams, and the distinct sound of him hopping to pull his pants on that has her laughing.

She slips on a pair of black boots and grabs her knit cap, pulling it on as she steps out of the bedroom and spots Henry picking up his shirt off of the floor.

“You weren’t thinking of putting that back on again, were you?” she asks, and he ducks his head in a sheepish grin.

“No,” he giggles, throwing the shirt somewhere and moving toward his suitcase to grab another one.

“Mmm, that’s what I thought. Downstairs in two minutes, okay? I want to get an early start to see if we can get a few more rooms packed today.”

She hears his _okay_ as she starts down the steps, and then another call of her name.

“Mom, can we invite Robin and Roland to breakfast?”

She stops and turns, looks back up at Henry at the top of the stairs. “I suppose I could text him and let them know we’ll be there. It’s not a guarantee though.”

“Good enough for me,” Henry shrugs, turning back to the bathroom to hopefully fix his hair.

When she gets downstairs she pulls her phone out and brings up Robin’s number, which he’d put in her phone last night before he snuck out.

_Hey there, a certain 8 year old wants to know if you and Roland would like to join us at Granny’s this morning for breakfast?_

She puts her phone back on the counter, turns to get a glass of water when she hears the vibration against the granite.

_I think a certain 6 year old would love that. He woke me up this morning asking about you and Henry. I’m sure he’d love to get breakfast, if you’re okay with it?_

She smiles, ducks her head with a blush although she knows no one can see her, and replies back ‘ _see you all in a few minutes then’._

Henry bounds down the steps a few moments later and pulls his coat off of the back of the chair, pulling it on. “Are they coming?”

“Robin said they’d meet us there,” she nods. “So you’ll be on your best behavior, right?”

“Yes!” he cheers, grabbing her hand. “Come on Mom, let’s go. I want to sit in a booth.”

She pulls her jacket on and they head out into the snow, walking together toward Granny’s.

Henry doesn’t stop talking on their walk, going on and on about the different things he sees in the town, his ride yesterday with Mal and Cruella. He’s dropping slight hints about moving here, she can tell in the way he talks about the school as they walk past, and his comments on how fun the town looks.

When they get to Granny’s she doesn’t see Robin or Roland, so she tells Henry to take the table by the window and goes up to the counter, toward a waving Granny.

“Hello there dear,” she smiles. “You and your son joining us for breakfast today?”

Regina looks back at Henry, who is busy laying out the napkins on the table. “Yeah, but there’s going to be four of us, if that’s okay?”

“Four?” Granny asks, her eyebrow raising. The bell chimes over the door and she watches as Roland bounds into the restaurant, his little hat snug over his head. There’s snow stuck to his hair and hat, and his cheeks are a rosy red. Robin trails in behind him, a look of defeat on his face.

“Papa, did you see how fast I ran? I slid right in the snow! Oh, Regina!” Roland yells, and runs toward her, crashing into her legs. “I played in the snow!”

“I can see that,” she laughs, lifting him up onto her hip. “You have snow all in your hair.”

He giggles, a blush spread over his already red cheeks. “I think that Papa’s grumpy. He didn’t want me to run into the snow, but there was a _huge_ pile, like there is in the fall with the leaves. We learned about all the seasons at school the other day. Fall has leaves, and winter has snow!”

“Very good Roland,” she compliments. “Why don’t you go sit with Henry?”

He nods and wiggles down, rushing across the restaurant to where Robin and Henry are.

Regina turns back to Granny and rolls her eyes at the smirk on the woman’s face. “Don’t say it…”

“I didn’t say a word,” Granny chides. “I just think it’s very interesting that the two of you were whisper arguing yesterday, like you thought no one could tell, but today you’re having breakfast?”

“It’s-” Regina trails off, looking back at Robin as he holds a conversation with her son. “It’s complicated.”

“What about the man loving you since you were practically babies is complicated?”

Regina stammers, her eyes wide. “No- I- he didn’t… there’s just a lot of unanswered questions.”

Granny smiles, passes four menus across the counter. “Well, don’t let me keep you from getting your answers. But some advice- listen to him. He’s been back in this town for a bit of time now, and I think there’s a lot that you both should listen to.”

She waits for a moment, hoping that Granny will add to what she’s said that now has her brain running with possibilities, but the woman nudges her away and goes back to the customer at the end of the counter. She makes her way back to their table, laughing at how the boys have wrapped Robin in a conversation about whether dragons or trolls are scarier.

“Good morning,” he calls out to her as she sits down, and she can feel the blush rising up her cheeks.

“Morning,” she smiles, passing him one of the menus. “So, what do you think, dragons or trolls?”

“Oh, absolutely dragons,” he laughs. “Though the boys do seem to be very into their conversation.”

“That they do,” she agrees, and they fall into a silence that she surprisingly doesn’t find uncomfortable. They decide on breakfast, ordering with Granny when she comes over, and fall back into silence after she goes.

The boys have moved on to their favorite school subjects when he finally speaks again. “You look beautiful.”

Regina bites her lip, looks up at him with a raised eyebrow. “You’re sweet,” she laughs.

“I mean it, Regina. You don’t look like you’ve aged a day since I-” he stops, looks unsure of what to say.

“Since we last saw one another,” she finishes, and he nods. It feels better that way, to hopefully move past the fact that, until yesterday, she’d assumed they would spend the rest of their lives apart.

“That’s a good way to put it. So, what are your plans for the day?”

“Henry and I are working our way into another room to pack. It’s taking a bit more time with him, mainly because he has so many questions about everything we find. Showing him things from my childhood is nice though. He’s always asked questions that I’ve tried to answer, in the best way that I can at least.”

“It’s good though. As Roland’s gotten older I’ve noticed he has more questions about his mum. He likes to hear stories about her.”

Regina nods, starts to reply when she hears the doorbell chime overhead and then a scream of her name.

“Regina! I thought I saw that old dusty truck outside the other day, and I’d assumed Daniel wasn’t here.”

Mary Margaret rushes up to their table and practically pulls Regina up and out of her chair, into a tight hug. Regina wraps her arms around her, taking in a moment in their hug.

“Hi, Mary Margaret. It’s good to see you.”

She pulls away, and Mary Margaret runs a hand over her cheek. “You look good! Like you didn’t up and disappear on us 8 years ago, with not even a phone call. Where have you been? _How_ have you been? Is this- oh my god, Robin, hi there.”

“Morning Mary Margaret, David,” Robin smiles, standing up to shake David’s hand, the one not holding the hand of a little boy, probably around 3.

Regina slides her hand down over her son’s shoulder, gives him a light squeeze and a tilt of her head. He stands up and shifts against her side, smiling up at Mary Margaret. “Henry, these are my friends from growing up. Mary Margaret, David, this is my son, Henry. He’s 8, well almost 9 now.”

“Oh, wow,” Mary Margaret sighs, holding her hand out. “It’s a joy to meet you Henry. You look just like your mom did, when she was your age. That’s when we met.”

He shakes her hand, blushing and ducking his head against Regina’s side. “Other people here say I look like my dad, but I’m not sure though.”

“I definitely see your mom,” she smiles, and Regina mouths _thank you_ to her. No one ever compares them, and it always warms her heart when someone sees her looks in her son.

They start to catch up when Granny comes out with their food on a tray. “Alright now kids, time to disperse yourselves. I do believe a couple of boys asked me for french toast that they’re very excited to try, and I won’t let you take that chance away from them. Now, you two take that table back there and I’ll be with you in a minute.”

“I do believe that’s our cue then,” David laughs. He wraps an arm around Mary Margaret’s hip and tugging her away from their table.

“We’ll catch up, Regina! Promise?”

“Promise,” she laughs, waving as they go back and sit down in the booth in the corner.

Roland and Henry are comparing their orders, both with french toast, but Henry’s is plain and Roland’s is topped with powdered sugar. Regina sits down and smiles at her eggs benedict, a looks across at Robin and his pancakes. “It’s like coming home,” she whispers, taking in the first bite.

She can feel Robin watching her, the smile on his face making her want to duck into herself and hide. He’d done this before, for so many years he’d just stepped back and watched her. She’d always noticed that he was doing it, but never saw it as more than a schoolyard crush.

She’s drawn out of it when Roland sneezes, laughter coming over the table as powdered sugar lands on his face when he goes to cover his nose.

Regina reaches across with her napkin and wipes his face off, laughing again when he scrunches his nose up. “Thanks Ms. Regina,” Roland smiles. “Papa, how’s your breakfast?”

“Good, my boy. Regina, you seemed to have gotten a bit of sugar on your shirt though.”

She looks down and chuckles as the splotches of sugar contrast against her shirt. “I’ll be back then,” she laughs, getting up from the table and heading toward the back of the restaurant.

She’s in the middle of wiping her shirt off when Mary Margaret comes in, holding hands with her son.

“I didn’t get to introduce you earlier,” Mary Margaret starts, lifting her son up and setting him on the bathroom counter. “This is my little boy, Neal.”

“Hi there,” Regina waves. “He’s adorable, really. I’m so proud of the mother that you are. You look like it really suits you. You look happy.”

“I am,” she replies, helping Neal lean in and wash his hands of the syrup stuck to his palms. “You do too, Regina. You look good. I will say, we do all miss you though. I was surprised to see you here at all. When I’d heard that your parents were selling their house, I thought they’d just send the things to them.”

“No one had bothered to pack the house up, and seeing as I am the closest, that’s why they asked me to. I wasn’t going to, at first. I thought that coming back here was going to be too difficult, that it was going to hurt, but it’s been good- It’s been really good. Seeing you guys, seeing Granny, _Robin_ , it’s been eye-opening. I was honestly afraid to come back for so long, I didn’t think that I would be welcome. It’s been refreshing though, being back and seeing everyone. I didn’t know how much I was missing it- how much I needed it.”

Mary Margaret pats Neal on the back, opens the door and sends him running into David’s arms back in their booth. “I think it’s good you’re back, Regina. We missed you so much, _I_ missed you so, so much. You were such a big part of my life, I didn’t expect that when you left to go have your son, you’d never be back.”

“I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be, either. Truly, we thought that you would be gone for a few months at most, and then be back with a little baby in your arms.”

Regina sighs, and leans against the counter. “That was my first thought, to go away and then come back. But my mother didn’t make that possible, and then by the time I’d had Henry and got my life together after everything that happened with Daniel and Emma, I was established in Mist Haven. I had my friends and a stable job in the bottoms of the political food chain- I was good. I wouldn’t say things were great, but I was good. So by the time I thought I could come back, Robin was gone and I needed to stay around the people that understood my brain. I wasn’t too good when Daniel disappeared, or when Emma died, and especially when Robin left. I felt safe in Mist Haven, more than I had here in so long.”

“It makes sense,” Mary Margaret smiles, reaching out to take Regina’s hand. “Tell me though- you and Robin? What’s that all about?”

“It’s new, I think. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but I know that it feels right. I think, at least, that it feels right. He’d been in my life for so long, and then was out of my life for so long too. I hope that it’s good though, I really do.”

Mary Margaret squeezes her hand before letting go. “Well, I’ll just say that we were all surprised to see him come back after Emma’s death. Sure, he seemed hurt and upset, but when he came home with a baby we’d all assumed that the two of you had gotten together, and he was yours.”

“I- Really? You thought that Robin and I had a son?”

“Everyone could see that Daniel wasn’t okay, it was just a matter of time before you figured it out for yourself and the two of you got your heads out of your asses. He’s a good man though, and an amazing father. You two would be perfect for one another.”

Regina laughs at that. “You haven’t seen me as a mother yet, who knows, maybe I’ve turned into a mini Cora.”

“You’d never let that happen,” Mary Margaret laughs, opening the bathroom door. “Your mother may have been a brilliant lawyer, but she was a shitty parent, Regina. You’re brilliant, and on top of it, I can tell just from looking at our son that he sees the world in you.”

They leave the bathroom, and Mary Margaret pulls Regina into another hug. “Don’t you dare leave without saying goodbye, okay? And promise me that you’ll listen to Robin, and give him a chance. You both deserve happiness.”

She hugs her back, gives Mary Margaret a tight squeeze. “I promise. You keep this baby safe too, okay? I’m going to be back to snuggle this little wonder.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” she laughs, and they head back to their respective tables.

She joins back into breakfast, finishing her meal and laughing as the boys, Robin included, talk about their favorite superheroes. It’s nice, having this moment between them, and with their sons included. She’d been worried at first that they wouldn’t get along, or that Henry would be wary to allow Robin into their life, even if only in a fractional amount. But her son seems happy, and Roland is adorable- maybe this could be something. She doesn’t want to get too ahead of herself though.

When they finish eating, the boys get up to go take Granny the money to pay their check and Robin reaches across the table to squeeze her hand. “You sleep well?”

“Good, better than I have in a bit. I think my pre-sleep activities may have contributed to that though.”

He grins, and she laces her fingers with his to give his hand a squeeze.

“You know, I had an idea yesterday after I went back to the house- what if we asked someone to hang out with the boys later today? You and I can get a bit more things packed up, and maybe the two of them can spend time with Granny?”

Regina eyes him carefully. “Like a date?”

“I- no, it doesn’t- if you…” he trails off. “Well I’ve done and buggered that up, haven’t I. What I mean is, I would love to spend more time with you. Our sons, too, I can just see them getting more in the way rather than be a help.”

“I like that idea,” she laughs. “We’d need to ask  Granny first, of course, and maybe she can take them later? I’m sure they would love to go with her.”

Their sons rush back to the table before he can answer, and they drop their hands before Henry can notice. Robin takes his card and signs his name, while Regina takes out cash for the tip. She heads back up to the counter, asking Granny about their evening.

“Would you mind? I don’t want to impose-”

“Nonsense, Regina. I’d love to take them later. Robin and you need to talk, without the interruption of two hyper children. Bring them back to me around 6, when Ruby comes in. They can play here for a bit.”

“As long as it’s not too much trouble for you.”

Granny brushes her off. “If you mention it being trouble once more…”

“Sorry Granny,” Regina grimaces. “It’s a habit. Thank you, really. We’ll bring the boys back by this afternoon.”

They all wave goodbye and head out, walking back to Regina’s house. Roland and Henry are a bit ahead of them, bouncing animatedly down the sidewalk, talking about all of the things that Roland’s done when he’s had sleepovers with Granny.

“They seem excited,” Robin laughs.

“I don’t blame them, don’t you remember how excited we’d get as kids when we got to go to Granny’s? I swear, she’s been the mom I didn’t think I needed for so long. I’m not sure who I would be without her.”

“I feel the same way.” He skims his hand over her arm, fingertips brushing against her soft skin as they cross the street. “While Cora was much more awful than we all could have imagined, Granny was a safe haven. I’m glad the boys have this opportunity, especially Henry. Though I do worry whenever Roland goes over what stories he’ll get.”

“Oh goodness I didn’t think of that,” she chuckles. “Granny has seen us at our worst.”

“Oh, remember that time we all got drunk off of that bottle of whiskey you’d snatched from your father’s cabinet, and you insisted that we go to Granny’s, because ‘ _every drunken adventure must end with mozzarella sticks and a milkshake’_.”

Her head drops back on a laugh, eyes watering as her infectious giggle comes out. “Oh, that was the absolute best. She was so mad that morning when we found me asleep in that booth.”

They’re still laughing and recounting teenage horror stories when they come to the front of the house, the boys having already found their way up the big tree in the front yard.

—

By 6, Regina and Robin have made little progress on the house, but the boys have learned more about their parents than ever intended. She’d forgotten how nice it was to have someone to laugh with, to share stories of their childhood antics as they went through and boxed up all of the mementos that fueled their stories.

She and Robin walked their sons back to Granny’s at 6, dropping the boys off with a promise of good behavior and manners, before turning back into Main Street.

“I know we were going to clean up a bit more first, but would you like to grab a beer instead? The Rabbit Hole is still around the corner, and I don’t think I’d like to look at another cardboard box or piece of tape for a long time.”

“A beer sounds great, actually.”

They find a quiet booth in the corner, and Robin goes up to get them two beers and a menu.

When he’s up at the bar she takes the time to admire him, more than she’d be comfortable doing around their kids. He’s wearing a dark wash pair of jeans that sits low on his hips, and a white henley. His sleeves are pushed up to his elbows, and she gazes at the muscles in his arms when he clenches his fist around their drinks and turns back to her.

He slips back into the booth and passes her drink across the table. They order food and eat their dinner, laughing intermittently at stories of their sons and their time apart. He gets them a few more beers, and Regina can feel the pleasant buzz of alcohol in her blood,  just enough to make her feel good without a headache the next day.

Robin takes another swig from his drink, grinning at her. “I’m not sure if I’ve said this yet, but I’m really happy you’re here. I missed you, so much. There hasn’t been a day in the past 8 years that I haven’t thought about you, or wanted to call you up and tell you about something silly with Roland.”

“Why didn’t you?

“I was afraid, honestly. After I left Mist Haven I went out to Vermont for a bit, and that’s where I met Marian. I put myself back in counseling, like we were before I left. I knew that…” he stops, taking a breath. His eyes are cast down looking at the table top. “I felt terrible for leaving you, and I needed to make myself better, for you and Henry. But then I met Marian and she got pregnant. I’d settled in, but then Roland was born. She was okay, at first, but…” he stops, shaking his head. “I’d rather not get into this all now. I’ll tell you, I promise.”

“You don’t have to tell me Robin,” she replies, reaching across the table to take his hand in hers, squeezing lightly. “I will say though, Roland is quite the kid. I’ve never met someone who talks so quickly.”

“Oh I know,” Robin laughs, and the somber mood melts away. “He’s incredible. I’m constantly fascinated with him, and how smart he is, even in his own way.”

“I’m the same with Henry. It’s so much fun watching them turn into people with these vast and powerful personalities. He’s come out of his shell this year, and it’s great- in most situations. He’s quick to voice his opinions. Todays was that we should move back to Storybrooke.” She lets out a laugh, but can feel Robin’s hand tighten against hers. He looks… hopeful, almost, and it makes her stomach flutter.

“It’s crazy though,” she stammers out, “right? I mean, me coming back here wouldn’t be realistic.” She sees his face drop, and the nervousness she feels suddenly turns to guilt. “Robin? Please say something.”

“Would you want to come back? If you had a reason?”

She takes a sip of her beer, gives herself a moment to think. “I won’t lie and say it hasn’t crossed my mind since I’ve been back. Seeing everyone here makes me realize it wasn’t all so bad, especially now that my mother's looming negativity is gone. There’s some other positives too,” she says, flashing him a smile. “I think?”

“There definitely are” he smiles. They sit in comfortable silence for a moment, before he stretches across the booth and presses his lips to hers in a fleeting kiss.

It surprises her, both that he’d kiss her in the crowded bar and how fast he pulls away. Even in the dimmed lights she can see a hint of red on his cheeks, through his stubble that makes her heart melt.

He looks _so_ good, truly has aged well in the past 8 years. He’s filled out from the lanky teenager she’d known him as, but his heart was still ten times the size of anyone she knew.

A smile warms over her cheeks and she’s got enough alcohol swimming through her that she reaches across them, cups his cheek with her hand and kisses him back.

It’s slow, a languid connection of their lips that has her heart pounding in her chest. He’s being a gentleman, and while it makes her swell with feelings she also craves the delicious feeling she’d gotten the day before, when his hands were skating dangerously close to her ass and he’d pressed his body against hers.

She breaks the kiss, runs her thumb over his cheekbone. She can feel him smile against her lips, kisses him once, then twice for good measure. “Do you want to go back to your place? I’d like to see it- if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, gods yes,” he leans in, kissing her again quickly. “Let me go pay, okay?”

She nods, gasps as he kisses her once more before rushing off to the bar.

He’s back moments later, his fingers linking with hers to pull her up out of the booth and into his arms.

The second she’s standing she can feel the alcohol a bit more, still not enough to affect her too terribly, but she feels pliant and _good_. Being pressed against Robin doesn’t hurt with that either. He dips his head in and kisses her again, this time a little harder. She’s hesitant at first, knows how quickly word travels in their small town, but it melts away when he nips at her bottom lip and slides his hand down, squeezes her hip.

They stumble out of the back door of the bar, arms wrapped around one another. The snow’s started to fall again, coming down harder onto the ground. It’s a beautiful night, quiet on the street this late at night, and she adds another thing to her list of reasons why Storybrooke may not be so terrible.

The man with his hand skimming closely toward the curve of her ass makes it much better too.

They turned down the road the opposite way of Regina’s, toward where Robin lives. They come up on a gorgeous house, modeled like a log cabin, next to the home he’d grown up in.

“Robin, it’s beautiful,” she sighs, curling into his side, her hand resting against his chest.

He squeezes her against his side, presses a kiss to the top of her head. “Mum sold me the land when I’d gotten enough money saved up, and then I saved up for a bit longer and built this. It’s good- there’s things that I like and things I don’t. But it’s a home. There’s a jungle gym outback for Roland, with a rope bridge between two of the trees that we back. He loves it.”

She takes his hand, walks backward into his house, smiling at him. “I want to see where you live. Show me?”

When they get inside he starts telling her all about the house, the little memories and stories that come to him when they turn into each room. She loves it, loves the pride and joy across his face when he recalls the time Roland climbed up the steps by himself, the corner where he took his first steps. He looks good as a dad, wears it well, and it makes her chest tighten.

When they make it into the kitchen she can’t wait anymore, wraps her hand around the back of his neck and pulls him down, connects her lips to his in a kiss.

His hand curls around her waist, thumb brushing under her shirt against her hip. His other hand comes up, fingers tangling into her hair to deepen the kiss.

Her hands slip down, fingertips brushing under his shirt and up his chest. She takes his shirt up with her hands, breaking the kiss for a moment to try and push his shirt up and off of him. He’s taller though, and she huffs out a begging, “Please get this off,” her nails dragging lightly against his chest while he pulls his shirt off of his head. She’s back on him seconds later, kisses him deeper.

His hands come down her body, brushing against her skin gently. She wants more though, needs more. It’s been too long since anyone was this close to her, and he’s so _hot_ , and kind, and everything that she’s missed in the past 8 years.

He breaks their kiss, chest heaving against her hands. “Regina, is this what you want? I can’t- I don’t want to go back tomorrow to acting like this,” he waves his hand between them, “isn’t something.”

“It is something,” she gasps out, her hands slipping up his chest to curl over his shoulders. “I feel it too, Robin.”

The smile across his face make her grin, and he reaches down, his hand curling under her ass to lift her into his arms.

She yelps, hands tightening against his shoulders and legs wrapping around his waist. She dives back in to kiss him again, hips grinding against the bulge in his pants. He groans into her mouth, and she grins into their kiss and does it again.

He walks them back up the steps, hands kneading her ass. They get to the top of the steps and he turns right, bypasses a door with a painted red R on it and nudges open the door to his room. He breaks their kiss and drops her playfully down onto the bed, and she lets out a laugh, looking up at him.

“Absolutely stunning.”

She blushes, sits up to pull her shirt off. She mentally applauds herself for wearing a good bra, for even thinking to bring a good bra with her. It’s purple lace, low cut against her breasts, the dark maroon a contrast against her pale skin. It’s not her sexiest bra, but it leaves little to the imagination, and the look on his face lets her know that it’s working.

“You, Regina Mills, are the most gorgeous women I’ve seen,” he smirks, running his hands teasingly up her sides. The tops of his fingers brush against the edge of her bra and she feels her breath hitch, waiting- hoping he’ll strip her down to nothing and ravish her the way she needs him to.

He kneels down over her on the bed as she lays back, leans in and kisses her until she lets out a groan. When he breaks the kiss his lips trail down her neck, finding a spot that has her back arching, has her gasping, “Robin,” her hand coming up to card through his hair, pushing his head down further.

He stops at her chest, and she can feel him humming contentedly against the soft swell of her breast. His lips graze lightly over her skin, pressing little kisses against her skin until he latches on, sucks against her breast. His teeth are nipping at her, and she moans, a breathy little whine escaping her when he sucks at her nipple through her bra.

“Robin- _please._ ”

She feels him smile against her breast, uses his teeth to pull down the cup of her bra. His tongue swirls over her nipple, a light flicking over the stiff peak. The pleasure is pooling low, the wetness growing between her thighs as he sucks her nipple into his mouth, gives it a hard pull with his teeth. She cries out, a high pitched keening sound escaping her lips.

His hands come around her, unclasping her bra and pulling it off of her. He gasps at the sight of her, and the look of pure adoration he flashes up at her has her chuckling.

“What?” He asks innocently, bringing his hand up to cup her breasts, thumbs circling over her nipples. He’s playing with her, teasing, and she needs to clench her legs together, _anything_ to relieve the building pressure.

“I- _oh fuck_ \- you’re cute, that’s all.” He pinches her nipple and her back arches, takes her bottom lip between her teeth, tries to muffle the loud moan she feels is about to come out.

He leans up, kisses her slowly, drawing the deep moan from her. She can feel the wetness gathering between her legs, shifts her hips and tries to find a way to grind up against the thigh he has between her legs.

Robin breaks the kiss and sits up on his knees, giving her a moment to admire his sculpted chest and thick arms. Her breath hitches when he drags her leggings down and off of her body, tossing them behind him onto the floor. He cups her over the scrap of lace covering her, his fingers pressing lightly against her clit, focusing on the delicious rub of the wet lace between her thighs.

“Do you like that?” he whispers, circling his fingers, pressing harder. “Do you like the feeling of my fingers on you? Just there- just enough to build you up.”

“Fuck,” she moans, her hips grinding against his fingers. She’s wet, can feel it between her legs, seeping into the barely there fabric of her panties.

He uses his other hand, slips down and presses one finger against her opening over her panties. “You’re so wet, love. Gods, look at you, wet and grinding yourself against my fingers. You want this, don’t you? Want me to push your panties to the side and slip a finger into you, then maybe a second. Curl them just right to have you doubled over, crying out my name.”

She’s flushed, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tries to even out her breaths. He has her so turned on, craving his fingers inside of her, bringing her up over that peak. “I need-”

“What do you need?” he asks, swirling his fingers faster over her clit.

It cuts her off mid-word, the embarrassing moan that comes out of her. She can feel the heat climbing, brings a hand down to pinch at her own nipple, pleasure coursing its way through her.

“That’s it Regina,” he whispers, leaning his head down to kiss and nip at her hip. He uses the hand teasing at her entrance to pull her panties down, tug them off of her gorgeous legs, slips one, then a second finger up into her and curls them. “Get yourself off on my fingers, love. I want you to feel good.”

“Oh, _oh_ ,” she gasps as the pads of his fingers press against her g-spot. “That’s it, like that but- harder, more firm, like-”

He follows her direction, thumps his fingers against the spot inside of her, in and out firmly. She can hear herself making sounds that she should find embarrassing, shouldn’t be chasing her orgasm on his fingers, but it feels so good, so _delicious_ that she can’t stop herself.

He’s got this smug grin on his face that she wants to kiss off, tries to tell him that, but he brings up his other hand and spreads her, presses the pad of his thumb against her clit and circles over her just lightly. Her eyes close and she groans, tries to move herself, to get some sort of friction, but he’s relentlessly thumps his fingers against her and it feels so fucking good.

The pressure is growing, the need to come taking over her every nerve ending. He hits a particular spot that has her head dropping back, eyes fluttering closed on an obscenely loud moan.

“Didn’t expect you to be so vocal,” he says, and she can hear the cheeky tone to his voice.

“W-wouldn’t be so bad if you’d just l-let me come already,” she gets out, whining when he pulls away the pressure on her clit completely. “Fuck- Robin, please. More, I need more.”

“More?” he asks, slowing his fingers down, keeping them inside of her though. She can feel his hot breath on her skin, little kisses against her abdomen.

“That’s not more,” she whines. She tries to shift her hips, fuck herself on his fingers, but he slings an arm over her hips and traps her down against the bed, curling his fingers up against her g-spot.

“Well, love, you asked for it,” he smirks, and leans down to attach his lips to her clit, sucking hard. At the same time, he starts quickly pushing his fingers inside of her, a third finger slipping in.

Her back arches off of the bed as best as she can with him holding her down, a high-pitched keen escaping from her as he relentlessly fucks her with his fingers, laves his tongue over her clit. He’s doing these little flicks with his tongue that are driving her up higher, her hands clawing at the sheets, tight gripped, as he pushes her higher and higher.

“That’s it love,” he mumbles against her, swirling his tongue over her clit. “Come for me.”

He doesn’t let up after that, fucking her harder with his fingers, sucking at her clit over and over until she hears herself cry out, her body tensing until sweet relief claims her and the comes, hard against his fingers and his tongue.

He keeps pushing, letting her ride out her orgasm until she’s pushing at his head, telling him “Too much, too much.” When he lets her down she falls flat against the bed, chest heaving.

“Oh, gods,” she laughs, and feels the bright smile spread across her face. He climbs up the bed and she wraps her arms around him, rolls him over onto his back and kisses him. “That was- wow,” she smiles, kissing him again.

His arms come around her and he holds her to his chest, hands trailing up and down her skin. He slips his hands down to the curve of her ass, squeezing her cheeks to tug her over, straddling his hips. He’s so hard, she can feel the hard bulge pressing against her, and she shifts to run her wet heat over his jean-clan erection.

He must have unbuttoned his pants at some point while he was getting her off because they’re open, she assumes to relieve the pressure. She shifts herself down his body, straddles his knees and urges him to lift his hips so she can tug his pants down and off of him. “It’s not fair that I’m naked and you aren’t,” she chides with a smirk.

“Oh of course love,” he laughs as his pants come off, and her fingertips dip underneath of the elastic.

She slips his boxers down, biting her lip as his erection pops free from the confines of his underwear. He’s- big, longer and a bit thicker than she could feel through his boxers. He’s already hard too, and she wants to say ‘fuck all’ and ride him until she can’t see straight. She tugs them down, leans forward and licks slowly up his shaft, her tongue swirling over the tip.

“Oh- oh _fuck_ , Regina,” he groans, a deep, primal sound that has her smiling against him, slipping her lips over his to suck, gently. She can feel how tense he is, holding himself back, so she reaches her hand up and links her finger with his, squeezing once. She pulls her mouth off of his cock, looks up at him until he makes eye contact with her. “Breathe, Robin,” she tells him.

“I can’t-” he gets out, groaning again when her lips wrap around him, her free hand swirling his balls in her hand, coming up to wrap around the base of him, squeezing gently as she sucks on his tip. “Fuck, _fuck_ Regina.”

She hums contentedly against him, slipping her hand down to gather some of her own wetness before wrapping it back around him, her hand guiding up and down his cock. She pulls her mouth off of him, watching his face as she squeezes against him.

“Oh, fuck Regina you need to stop. I won’t, I can’t make it if you keep doing that,” he chokes out, letting another groan out when she takes his balls into her hand once again.

She slips her way back up his body, hand still wrapped around his erection as she straddles his hips, brushing his tip against her entrance.

“You’re so wet, love.” His hands come up to circle around her hips, and she feels the heat of his cock against her, craves to sink down over him, to feel him fill her.

She lets go of him, leans down to kiss his neck, his jaw, up to his ear. “I’m clean,” she smirks, trailing her kisses toward the other side of his jaw.

He nods, drags his hands down to cup her ass, palm and grope at her. “Me too,” he tilts his head, kissing her.

She slips her hands between then, wraps her hands around him and shifts her hips, lining him up with her entrance. She sits up, swirls her hips once, twice over him before sinking down, taking his length into her.

The delicious stretch of her body for him has her gasping, her hands perched against his strong chest as she takes his length into her. She glides herself up once, so that only the tip is inside of her and grinds back down, taking him slowly until he’s fully inside of her. “Oh, god,” she moans, eyes fluttering shut as her body gets used to him.

His hands skim up her thighs, to her hips, fingers wrapping around her. “Take your time, love.”

She opens her eyes back up, smiles brightly at him and leans down, takes his lips in a slow, deep kiss. Her tongue slips past his lips and she swallows both of their moans as she starts riding him, his cock pumping in and out of her. She can tell he’s letting her set the pace, which she’s grateful for in the beginning. It’s been a while since she’s had sex with anyone, and beside that- he’s thicker than she’s had. The stretch feels wonderful though, and she’s growing wetter by the minute.

“You’re so tight,” Robin groans, hands coming around to squeeze her ass. She kisses him again, takes her time riding him, her hips meeting his with each languid thrust down onto him. It’s perfect, and she loves it, but she wants more- needs more.

She breaks their kiss and sits up, her palms resting against his abdomen. She gives him a smirk, and swivels her hips over him, burying him deep inside of her while he let out a guttural groan.

“Fuck, babe, you’re so warm, so wet- so good.”

“You like it?” she asks, bracing herself to rise and lower over him. She needs him to take her, needs him to whisper those brilliant things to her, to get her all riled up so he can properly fuck her.

“You’re gorgeous, so hot, taking my cock in like that. You like it, don’t you? Like feeling stretched, so full.”

“Oh fuck,” she whimpers, moving faster. “Fu-fuck, Robin, I need you to move.”

“Oh thank god,” he groans. He bends his knees some, rucks her forward enough to change the angle, which has her crying out. His hips piston forward, hands tightening against her hips to have her bucking against him. Her hands curl, nails digging into his muscular chest as he thrusts his hips up into her. He feels bigger like this, filling her more as he brings her down onto him.

Her eyes flutter shut, head dropping down against his chest as she moans. “Oh, that’s it- _fuck_ Robin, right there.” She lifts his head to see his smirk, smacking his chest once playfully. “Damn you, don’t look at- _oh, shit_.” Her thoughts change when he snakes one hand around between them, two fingers pressing against her clit to rub in tight circles. She’s fucking him in earnest now, meeting him thrust for thrust, so he brings his other hand up and cup her breast, runs his thumb over her nipple at the same pace he’s pinching and rubbing her clit.

The feeling of him everywhere, touching her, feeling her brings her up higher with each thrust. It’s good, so unbelievably good, and she can feel her orgasm building. Her skin is flushed- she can feel the blush rising higher and higher as the buzz of her orgasm weaves its way through her. He’s fucking her faster now, more than she’d even thought possible, and it’s it, oh, _oh yes_ that’s perfect.

“Don’t stop, right- fuck that’s it Robin, right there, ohh!”

Her body pitches forward as she comes, forehead dropping against his shoulder. She cries out, especially as he keeps fucking her through her orgasm, fingers circling quick over her clit to bring her up again.

She can’t- can’t possibly come again, but then he’s rolling her over, lifting her right leg to drape her calf over his shoulder. He turns his head and nips at her calf, runs his tongue over the spot before soothing it with a kiss. He flashes her a smile that has her heart melting, and then he slips back into her and her head falls back, letting out a long moan.

She’s still not come down from her first orgasm and so as he fucks her, it builds back up rapidly.

“God, Regina you’re so bloody gorgeous. Everything about you is- I can’t even explain it love.” His hands are running over her, grasping and caressing every part of her. He feels so good, makes her feel so good, and she wants to tell him everything about how she feels. This can’t be the only time they do this- she can’t live without feeling like this ever again.

“You feel so good,” she lets out, eyes widening as he reaches his hand down to spread her, and oh _fuck_ , he’s staring at where their bodies are met.

She leans up on her elbows and watches with him as he slides in an out of her, faster and harder than before, fucking her deep. It’s possibly the most erotic thing she’s seen, how intent he is on bringing up their pleasure, how turned on he is by watching their coupling.

His other hand comes around, lifts her left leg and guides it up, over his head to rest next to her right leg and this is so- so tight oh, shit.

The obscenely embarrassing moan she lets out has her blushing, but it fades quickly when she realizes how much better this is. It’s so tight and he feels even bigger now, not that she’d thought that could be possible. He’s smirking at her again, like he knows her every thought, and when he leans down and presses her legs closer to her chest, his hand clasped behind her knees, her eyes roll back in her head and she reaches down and grasps his sheets.

“Jesus, oh, I can’t- I won’t be able to hold on.”

“That’s it, Regina, just feel. Just let go, beautiful,” he tells her. He brings his hand around and circles at her clit, matching each quick tight turn on his fingers against her to his fast-paced thrusts and oh, she’s going to come.

He doesn't let up, relentlessly drives himself into her and she can tell, he’s going to come too. His face is twisted tight and he’s groaning, these manly and beautiful sounds that she wants to hear for the rest of her life. “Oh, fuck, that’s it babe, let go for me.”

And she does. Her back bows off of the bed and she cries out, a high-pitched wail leaving her mouth, her hands coming up to grip at the arm he’s using to twist and swirl over her clit. She’s coming, wet slaps of his hips against hers bringing her over and over until she hears him cry out as well and he slips out of her, spilling over the backs of her legs and the curve of her ass. Her legs fall as she comes down from her high, landing against his chest.

He looks so good. He’s practically glowing. His gorgeous dirty blonde hair is mussed up from her fingers earlier, and his cheeks have this little red tint to them. His chest is- wow, perfect, and when he climbs up the bed next to her and presses his lips to hers in a kiss, her heart soars.

His arm comes up around her, rolling her onto her side to face him. They stay silent for a few minutes, just trading lazy kisses back and forth between one another. She finally breaks their kiss and drops her forehead to his, her hand coming up to trace little circles against his arm.

“That was incredible,” she breaks their silence, shifting so she can take him in.

“It was amazing,” he smiles, kissing her again. He brings his hand up and pushes a fallen strand of hair out of her face, runs the pads of his fingertips down the line of her jaw. “You’re stunning, Regina Mills. Have been since we were kids but now, wow.”

She can feel the blush rising up her cheeks, the warmth spreading through her. “All of this, Robin, I’m in. I’m all in.”

His hand comes around her and he tugs her against his bare chest, kissing her again. He links their fingers and tucks their hands between them so she can feel his heartbeat against the back of her hand. The smile on his face is brilliant, and she can’t help but kiss him again when he tells her he’s all in too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy! There's a bit more planned for this story, which will be coming soon. Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

He’s a bastard. He’s evil and awful and  _ oh, fuck—  _ evil. Pure, unadulterated evil. 

His tongue is moving against her, these little flicks against her clit, over and over, bringing her closer to the edge. Her senses are on overload with the scarf he has over her eyes, fuck, why does he have so many scarves to begin with? He’s using them against her, every feeling heightened as he sucks her clit between his lips. 

She strains against the scarves he has wrapped around her wrists, draws her arms in close to her chest, her back arching off of the sheets. “Robin,  _ please, _ ” she cries. She can’t close her legs like she desperately wants to, his calloused hands pressing against the inside of her thighs, holding her legs open. Her every sense is already so intense that she knows she’s so close, she’ll come any minute now. 

“What’s that? Are you begging?” 

She shakes her head and chokes out a moan when his fingers circle over her entrance. “Yes, yes I’m begging. Please I need you, I need something, anything.” 

She can feel his smirk against her skin, the smug bastard. This is what he wanted, his promise to her that he would have her begging by the end of the night. Their first round was so good, and so much dirtier than she’d imagined it to be, as he denied her and stretched her. After they talked and fueled up on leftovers he had in the fridge, their conversation went from lighthearted happiness to whispered desires and fantasies. 

Before she knew it he had her bent over the countertop in his kitchen, her panties pulled down around her knees as he had thrust into her. It’s too much now though and she regrets competing with him, insisting that there was no way she would beg for him, be brought to the point where she was a blubbering mess. 

Her pride is shot though, and all she wants is for him to let her come. She knows that she won’t be able to hold it back. She’s going to come without permission and then he’s going to punish her and— 

She can feel two of his fingers barely inside of her, pressing up against her opening and  _ “no, no I’m not going to make it _ . _ ”  _

“You will,” he encourages her, flicking his tongue once, twice over her, so light. “You’re not going to come without my permission. You’re going to hold out, just a little longer darling.” With his last words he pushes his fingers all the way into her, curls them up and presses the pads against her g-spot and swirls them in tight, little circles. 

The sound that comes out of her is embarrassing, the high pitched keen as her body curls up, hips bucking against the bed. It’s too much, so much after she’s been waiting for so long and she can’t hold back. 

His mouth is no longer on her and he’s sitting up now, she can feel the shift of his knees beneath her legs. “It’s only been a few minutes, love.” 

“Fuck,” she gasps, trying to close her legs around his hand, her wrists pulling against the restraints. She can hardly speak as she gasps out, “Robin, I’m not going to last, it’s too much.” She starts to spasm around his fingers and he pulls them out of her quickly, slapping his palm twice against her opening. “No!” she cries, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. His hand is pressed to the inside of her right though, holding her legs open though she wants terribly to close them, clamp them around his hand. She can feel her wetness pooling, slipping out of her as he smacks against her again, just once more. 

“You just  _ want _ to be punished don’t you? You want me to flip you over, smack that ass of yours until all you can see is my handprint. You don’t want to be able to sit without squirming, getting wet when you feel the sting, knowing that it’s from me, knowing that you couldn’t hold it, couldn’t be a good girl.” 

He slaps her again and she cries out, hands wrapping around the scarves around her wrists, her body tensing. “It’s too good.  _ Please,”  _ she pleads. 

“You love it, don’t you? The thought of me bringing you up until you can’t take it, begging for my cock, for me to fuck you like the good girl you are? You want me to hold your hips and slide into you, fill you up until you’re so stretched that you feel like you’re about to burst.” 

Her breath is coming quicker now, his words working her up more and more and she feels like she’s going to combust. 

“I’ll do whatever you want, you win, you’ve got me begging but— I  _ have  _ to come. I can’t wait anymore, I won’t make it.” 

Regina feels him shift again and his lips are on hers, kissing her slowly, his hand cupping her chin. She can feel the cocky smirk on his lips as he gives her a moment, the soft kisses trailing down her cheek and to the sharp line of her jaw. 

He breaks the kiss, his hard length against her thigh, hot against her cool skin. “You want it, don’t you?” he asks, and she groans. His voice is so close, lips brushing against her ear and his fingers are between her thighs again. “You want me to fuck you until you don’t know your own name?” he adds and she keens, turns her head to try and kiss him but he’s gone again. 

He runs his fingers over her, teasingly, lightly, and then his lips are at her neck, guiding their way up to her jaw, and higher. 

“You have permission to come,” he growls before he teases against her entrance, pushing two fingers deep into her and curling them against her g-spot. 

Her back arches off of the bed, body wrestling against the restraints as he fucks her, bringing her up, up,  _ up _ through her first orgasm. It’s incredible, every sense heightened as she cries out, her leg trembling. She’s shuddering against his hand and she tries shaking her head, wants to get the blindfold off of her, wants to watch him as he touches her. He doesn’t let up, relentlessly presses his fingers against her, drawing out her orgasm, his other hand coming up to press at her chest. He thumbs over her nipples and she feels like she’s out of her own body. She wants these restraints off of her, craves to touch him, to pull him down and kiss him relentlessly. The sounds coming out of her are loud, never-ending as he brings her up closer again. “Robin, I’m—” 

“You said you wanted to come,” he chuckles, his thumb stretching up from where he’s inside of her and putting pressure on her clit, circling quickly against her. “One more time for me love, just let yourself feel everything.” 

“Ahh— oh, oh god I—” She cries out, and his hand on her chest slips up more, palm against her sternum, fingertips close to her throat. Oh god, if he brings his hand up any higher toward her throat and tightens his hand against her skin, she— 

“Ro—” she gasps, her breaths coming out in short stints. “I’m not, I can’t—” 

“Now now,” he teases, a third finger pushing up into her wet heat, stretching her so  _ deliciously _ that she cries out, panting, trying desperately to catch her breath, to get the scarf off of her eyes,  _ anything. _ “You wanted so badly to come earlier and now you don’t want to?” 

She’s going to cry, going to explode through all of her heightened senses and the pressure inside of her. She can feel everything, the fingers of his left hand inside of her, thumb pressing hard, tight circles against her clit. His right hand is inching up, closer and closer to her neck, not wrapping around her, no, just putting pressure. She still can’t see but she itches to touch him, to see him, to wrap her fingers around the hard cock she can feel against her leg and take him into her mouth, make him feel the intense need to come that she feels now. “I want to see you, I— oh god, please let me see you, let me feel you.” 

“One more,” he whispers. He leans over and kisses her, tongue delving into her mouth for a quick kiss, pulling away and moving his fingers once more. “One more time and then I’ll let you go.” 

He kisses down her chest, thrusting his fingers slow and deep, matching each kiss he gives her skin, still holding her down with his palm to her chest. His tongue works its way over her flushed skin, and she feels his teeth against her breast, tongue against the smooth curve, his lips coming up to wrap around her nipple and suck. She’s going to black out if she comes again, the growing feeling of that pure pleasure already taking over her body, the bliss of his body working together to make her come apart. 

“Come for me,” he mumbles against the swell of her breast. “Let yourself go, let it all out.” 

She can barely hear the sounds she makes but she doesn’t care, wants nothing more than to let go. It’s stressing her out though, and she can feel her emotions rising, her heart pounding, her body trembling with each swipe of his tongue over her nipple. 

“R—Robin I need, it’s too much,” her voice waves, laced with the tears she can feel building. 

He slows every part of his movements against her, kissing back up her body, his lips soft against the curve of her cheek. She wants to cry at how  _ good _ he is, whines when he withdraws his fingers from her, soothingly tracing over her sensitive skin. He caresses her hips, moves his hands down so his thumbs are massaging the muscle at the crease of her thighs, moving back in to trace over her smooth skin. It feels so good, brings her heart rate down and helps her calm her breathing. “Take a moment, love,” he whispers, kissing her cheek, her forehead, her lips. “Tell me when you’re ready.” 

She can feel her heart rate calming, her breaths evening out as he presses little, light kisses to her face, her cheeks. “I’m okay,” she whispers, turning her head toward where she feels him, her lips catching his jaw. “It’s just—” 

“A lot,” he smiles, kissing her once, twice for good measure. “You sure? We can stop, take a break.” 

She shakes her head, kisses him once more before whispering against his lips, “Make me come, Robin.” 

He lets out a groan that brings her right back into it, his fingers slipping back inside of her, working her up slowly, building up the intense feeling they’d let dissipate. 

“You’re so beautiful, Regina. Everything about you is so perfect, the way you clench around my fingers, how your body responds to my every touch. You love it, don’t you? You want to come around my fingers, and then once more around my cock.” 

“Y— your cock, now. I want to see you, want to feel you inside of me. Please, Robin, I need you. I want to touch you, want to run—  _ oh, fuck _ — my hands over your back, grab your ass as you drive into me. Please,  _ please,  _ let me feel you. Let me go, untie me and let me touch you.” 

She hopes he listens, needs him to let her go and she needs to come with him inside of her, feel him stretching her, making her feel so full as he fucks her down into the sheets of his bed. 

She feels his hand on her chest slip up and draw the scarf from around her eyes. His thumb brushes over her cheekbone, and he leans in, kissing her softly. She kisses him back but keeps her eyes closed, waits until she adjusts to the soft glow in the room. Her eyes flutter open and she sees his face hovering over hers, his gorgeous eyes and smile, and she stretches up, kissing him carefully. “I love you,” she breathes out, her heart swelling at the smile that spreads across his face. 

“I love you too,” he kisses her back. His hand comes up and he goes to untie her but she shakes her head, stretching up to kiss at his neck. “Leave them,” she whispers. She craves to touch him, to rake her fingers over his smooth, flushed skin and card her fingers through his hair, hold his gorgeously toned body to hers as he takes her, but she wants to watch too. Wants to feel as he drives into her and she can’t stop herself from whispering to him. “Just fuck me.” 

He groans, eyeing her over once. “You’re as devilish as you are brilliant, has anyone told you that?” He takes her jaw into his strong hand and kisses her, his tongue swiping over hers, drawing out sounds from her that she’d normally be embarrassed by. She kisses him back though, surges up against her restraints and tilts her head, pouring into him. 

“You love it though,” she quips back when she pulls away from him, and he smirks, his hands coming down to wrap around her hips as he sits back on his knees. “Ready, love?” he asks, lifting her hips, wrapping her legs around his waist. His hand comes between them, fingers teasing lightly over her, circling her sensitive clit. 

She’s starting to get sore from earlier and she trembles, the muscles in her legs pulsing. “Oh god yes,” she groans, the tip of his cock pressing against her. 

When he finally slips in she gasps, her hands wrapping back around the scarves around her wrists, drawing them in toward her. She lets out a deep breath as he draws back out, feels so fucking good inside of her, so thick and hot. It’s such a contrast to his fingers, but it’s oh, so much better, stretching her. 

“God love, you’re still so tight,” he groans, pushing into her slowly, his pace a steady  _ thump, thump _ against her. His thick hands wrap around her hips, gripping her tightly as he starts to fuck her harder. He feels incredible against her, inside of her, surrounding her, stretching her. He leans down and kisses her and she breathes him in, can feel the shared moans vibrating between them. He pulls away from her and leans back up and she takes a moment to admire his chest, looking up to watch. He’s staring down at where they’re connected, watching as he disappears inside of her and she groans out a broken,  _ “Oh, god” _ at how enamoured he looks at them. 

He’s bringing them both up quickly and she can feel the same pressure building, the slow burn of her orgasm coursing its way through her. “You’re fucking incredible,” he growls, his hands mapping over her thigh, caressing her skin. “I’m not— you’re so hot, so fucking perfect. You feel so good, I’m not going to make it much longer.” 

“Oh god this is— I’m so close, you feel so good, so thick” she gasps, his fingers coming between them to circle over her clit. Her hips surge up and she cries out when his calloused thumb rubs over her sensitive clit, her legs falling further open. Her right leg draws up and she clenches around him, circling her hips, meeting his thrusts. “God, this,  _ oh _ ,  _ shit, fu… fuck, please, I need to come.”  _

It’s exactly what she needed, his fingers against her, putting that delicious pressure against her clit to bring her over the edge. Her body feels like it’s exploding and his hands come back to hold her in place as he continues to push into her, telling her how wonderful she is, how good she feels coming around him. She clenches around him on a loud  _ oh fuck, _ a high-pitched whine escaping her as he keeps fucking her through her orgasm. Every part of her feels like it’s floating, her legs wrapping tightly around him, heels digging into his back. It feels incredible, his body surrounding her, sweaty skin pressed against hers. He thrusts into her a few more times and she rides out her orgasm, her focus on him. He’s stunning, the muscles straining in his arms and  _ fuck,  _ she’s so lucky to have found him again. He lets out a grunt and he pulls out of her, releasing himself on her stomach, groaning as he wraps his hand around his cock, working himself over. She watches him come and it’s possibly the hottest thing she’s ever seen, the look on his beautiful face as he lets himself go on her skin, his hand wrapped tightly around his cock, thumb swirling over the head. 

She catches her breath as he grabs a towel, cleans her off and stretches over her to give her another slow kiss. She wants to wrap her arms around him and hold him to her, wants to never lose the weight of his body above hers, the feel of his body aligned with her. They make out for a while, lips and tongues tangled, his hands caressing over her body, pads of his thumb brushing carefully over her chilled skin. 

When the need for air becomes too much and the exhaustion begins to take over he breaks their kiss, smiling down at her. “You’re amazing, you know that?” 

She smirks up at him, leans up to brush her cheek against his. “I’ve been told,” she laughs, kissing his cheek. “You could untie me, though.” 

“Oh, fuck, sorry love,” he laughs, hands coming up to quickly undo the scarves from her wrists, helping her massage out the stiffness in her shoulders and her wrists. She hisses at the strain but lets out a little gasp as he takes her hips and carefully rolls over, presses his thumbs into the sore muscles of her back, working out the kinks from how long she spent tied to his bed frame. She can feel her eyes drooping closed as he smooths his hands over the plane of her back, pressing soft, careful kisses into her spine. 

When she’s saitied and comfortable he drops down next to her, his arm coming up to brush against her back. She tilts her head, a soft and silly smile spread over her face. She can feel her smile, knows that she probably looks ridiculous but she’s just so  _ happy. _ So excited that she’s finally found him, after all these years here is here with her, pressing little kisses to the crown of her head as she curls up against him and her eyes close as she drifts off into sleep. 

.::.

 The next morning she stirs, the burn working it’s way through her body as she stretches. There’s a pull in her muscles, especially those that haven’t been used in far too long. She draws the sheets up around her, doesn’t remember ending up under them when she fell asleep the night before so he must’ve covered them up, and turns to look at his sleeping form beside her. 

He’s beautiful. 

Everything about him makes her heart swell, the line of his jaw, the curve of each muscle in his arms and in his back. He’s on his stomach, one hand under his head, the other resting in the empty space she just sat up from. He looks so peaceful, a soft snore coming from his lips, and she reaches over to card her fingers through his tousled hair. 

When the need to pee becomes too much she slips out of the bed, finds one of his shirts off of the chair in the corner and tugs it on, padding over to the ensuite. 

She goes and as she’s washing her hands, looks up at herself in the mirror and, oh lord. Her hair is mussed from his fingers, little tangles and knots formed on the underside. She finds a brush and starts to work her way through it when she notices her neck. 

Oh, that  _ bastard.  _

There’s a hickey on her collarbone and she has no recollection of when he made it. It’s vicious though, a mix of reds and the hint of purple around the edges. He’s going to pay for this. Now she’s got to hide a hickey from her son and— oh shit, her  _ parents _ will be here soon, and even with it being winter she knows her mother will chide her for wearing a scarf indoors. 

She searches through his drawer and finds a pack of toothbrushes, slipping the purple one out and brushing her teeth, humming to herself. After she cleans herself up to be a bit more presentable than she felt when she climbed out of his bed, she looks at herself in his mirror once more. 

She even looks happy. 

That giddy feeling is still fresh in her mind and heart, all thanks to that adorably sexy man lying in his bed out there. She hears him groan, the shift of his body against the sheets in his bed, and the call of her name. 

“Regina, love, you here?” 

She emerges from the bathroom, clad in only his shirt which brushes the tops of her thighs, and his eyes widen at the sight of her. 

“Bloody hell, I’m so glad that wasn’t a dream.” 

She laughs, walking back toward the bed with her hands on her hips. “You thought you dreamed that?” 

He sits up in the bed and gawks at her, stretches his arms out to her and she climbs onto the bed, straddling his thighs, her arms coming up to drape over his shoulders. “Hmm,” she lets out with a smirk, leaning forward to draw her lips across his jaw. “How’d you sleep?” 

“Wonderfully.” He turns his head and captures her lips in a kiss, his hands trailing up her thighs to wrap around her and tug her closer to him. 

They stay like that for a while, his hands making their way up and down her thighs as they kiss. It slowly dissipates, his forehead resting against hers as they catch their breath. She glances at the clock by his bed, the bright red 6:45 shining up at her. “We’re going to have to go get the kids sooner or later.”

He groans and drops his head to her shoulder, kissing the bare skin showing by the collar of his shirt. “I think she could use them during the breakfast rush. They can help bus tables,” he laughs.

She matches his laugh, sitting back to look at him. “I think Roland would eat more pancakes than he cleaned up.” 

“They’d get good tips though,” he quips back, leaning in, lips pressing against where her heart beats in her chest. “Should we talk about last night?” 

“Not yet,” she sighs, shaking her head. “I’m sure we could go on and on about what ifs, but if I’m being honest here, I’m happy. Really, really fucking happy.” 

The smile that shines from his face makes her stomach flutter, his gorgeous dimples deep in his cheeks. “Me too, love.” 

They finally climb off of the bed and at his suggestion of sharing a shower they trail into the bathroom, trading slow, lazy kisses with each step. They stand together under the hot spray of water, droplets slicking their skin, bodies wrapped around one another. She’s still sore from the six orgasms she had the night before but she works him up with her hand, drops down to her knees to take him into her mouth, bringing him over the edge with his hand tangled through her hair. 

.::.

When they walk into Granny’s they’re met with immediate yelling, their sons both barreling toward them. Henry hits her first, his arms coming up tight around her hips. Robin scoops Roland up into a hug with a loud _ ‘my boy’  _ coming from him. 

“How was your evening?” Regina asks, carding her fingers through Henry’s hair as he looks up at her. “Did you boys have fun?” 

“It was the best! Mom, Granny let us help at the restaurant, and then Ruby took us to the movies! We got to eat so much popcorn, and then Roland got a big soda so we shared it. And then, we went and got ice cream and  _ then _ Roland fell asleep in Granny’s lap while she read us a story. I didn’t want to go to sleep yet, but the story was so good and then I woke up. She said we could share a muffin before you guys got here, if that’s okay?” 

“You boys already had so many sweets yesterday, I suppose one more muffin didn’t hurt anything. You need sustenance though, so breakfast has to be eggs and either bacon or sausage, and juice. Something to offset all that processed sugar in your system.” 

Robin laughs at something Roland says about Regina’s breakfast suggestion and turns to her, smiling. “She’s right though. You two are going to be wired for days on all of those sweets.” 

The boys groan in unison, which makes them laugh harder. “Alright, you two go pick out a booth and we’re going to talk to Granny,” Robin tells them, setting Roland back down on the ground, who immediately goes to Regina for a hug. 

“We missed you,” Roland sighs into her leg. 

“Oh, we missed you too dear. We’ll talk about all the fun things you did in a minute, okay? Let your Dad and I go thank Granny.”

“Okay!” He and Henry run off, and Regina and Robin head over to where Granny stands at the counter, that knowing look on her face. 

“So… Did you two kids have fun last night?” Granny has this smirk on her face that makes her feel uncomfortable, makes her feel like she’s 16 all over again and Granny is scolding her for sneaking whiskey into her coffee after a long night out. 

“We did. We got a good amount of things packed up,” Robin responds, thankfully, while she feels her face turns red as Granny continues. 

“Oh, yes, it sure looked like it when you guys were walking down the street late at night, especially with Robin’s hand wrapped around your ass. You looked like you were doing a lot of packing.” 

She’s mortified. Completely ashamed that Granny saw them, but Granny and Robin are both laughing like they’re somehow okay with all of this. “I—We,” 

Granny turns, still laughing, and grabs two coffee cups and fills them. “You kids are a mess, you know that? Be happy that it was me that saw you, and not someone else.”

Robin smiles and Regina can still feel herself blushing when he gives her the coffees, tells her to go sit with the boys while she talks with Granny. She joins the boys who are in a deep conversation about the games they want to play during the day, sits with them and finds herself watching Robin, the lines of his face as he talks with Granny, laughs with her. 

He turns back to their table and she ducks her head, sipping the coffee, letting the warmth work it’s way through her. 

“You good, darling?” 

She looks up at him and nods with a smile as he sits. They didn’t discuss what they were, whether they were displaying themselves as friends or as more, but as he takes her hand from across the table and gives it a calming squeeze, she finds herself settling much better than she anticipated. 

They eat breakfast, discussing in detail the amount of fun the boys had with Granny, their favorite and least favorite parts, how excited they were to spend some time with Ruby. The boys had sat themselves next to one another in the table so she’s next to Robin and his hand continues a subtle path up her thigh, down the side of her arm. He keeps touching her, little light things but she loves them, draws comfort from each caress of his fingertips. 

Roland says something that has them all laughing, and as she looks up she sees a familiar figure emerging from a car on the street. She’s out of her seat in seconds, rushing out the front door of the diner and into her father’s unknowing arms. 

“Regina!” 

“Hi Daddy,” she whispers into his shoulder, giving him a tight hug. 

He draws away from her, his hands cupping her biceps as he looks her over. “You look wonderful sweetheart. If you’re here, where is my—”

“Grandpa!” Henry screams out, rushing out of the diner and onto the sidewalk. “Grandpa you’re here!” 

Henry Sr. laughs and leans down, catching his namesake into a tight embrace. “And you’re so much taller than I remember. How are you Henry?” 

Her heart swells at her father and her son, her two favorite Henry’s laughing and talking with one another, making up for lost time. It’s hard, not seeing her father as much as she always wants to, but everytime they have a reunion, regardless of how brief it is, it always brings her joy to see them together. 

“So, how is the packing coming along?” 

“Mostly done,” she nods as her father stands. “We’ve been getting through it. There’s something I want to talk with you about though, an idea that’s been running through my head for the past few days.” 

He raises an eyebrow at her, contemplates her for a moment before he smiles. “I think we need to talk, Regina.” He nods twice before patting Henry on the back, turning his attention back to him. “I do believe it looks like I’ve taken you from your breakfast, is that so?” 

“We were inside with Robin and Roland! You should come meet them Grandpa, they’re the best.”

“Robin? As in Robin Locksley?” 

“Yeah! I think so, at least,” Henry continues, tugging on his grandfather’s hand. “Come on, we just ate but Mom said she wanted more coffee so now we all have to wait for her, but that’s okay. And you can meet Roland. He’s younger than me, but I think we’re already best friends.” They open the door to the restaurant and she trails behind them, see’s Robin up, standing, reaching a hand out to her father. 

“Robin! Boy, I haven’t seen you in years,” her father lets out, shaking Robin’s hand.

“It’s excellent to see you sir.” Robin looks past her father when he turns to say hello to Roland, giving her a quick wink. 

Thankfully her father had always liked Robin, was never one to push him aside or treat him poorly. It helped, too, that Robin and Emma had always shown her parents respect. Daniel hadn’t been like that, was always a bit too cocky for her father’s taste, and any of their other friends weren’t typically around their house.

Granny comes around the counter and greets her father, pulling him up an extra chair and insisting that he sit while she gets him a coffee. Her father and Robin fall quickly into conversation, sharing old stories of he and Regina’s childhood antics that have the boys in fits of laughter. It feels good, seeing the people she cares about the most in the diner that she grew up in. The nostalgia hits her, the desire to be back in Storybrooke a bit more permanently. Maybe it wasn’t all bad, maybe she can come back here without the regret and self-loathing that she’s always feared. 

Robin’s phone rings and he excuses himself, stepping outside to take the call. Roland and Henry are up at the juke-box in the back of the diner, and for a brief moment she and her father are along. 

“So what is it that you wanted to talk about?” 

Regina takes a deep breath and looks directly at him. “I want to take over the mortgage for the house. I know that I can’t really afford it, but if you let me tap into the savings trust that you think I didn’t already know about, I know that I could afford it. It’s time, honestly, for me to move back here. I love my life in Mist Haven, I really do, but there’s just something about this town that is calling to me. It may be irresponsible of me to take on so much without having anything lined up, but in the last few days of being back here I realize now that I do miss it, a lot more than I expected. I think raising Henry here, in a small town, would be best, and if at all possible I’d love to make those happy memories in my childhood home.” 

Her father looks at her for a moment and she feels the tension rising through her, her leg bouncing quietly under the table, just waiting for him to say something,  _ anything _ about her idea. 

“You really want this house, don’t you?”

“I didn’t think I did at first, but being back in there, being able to sit down with Henry and go through all of the things that I had tamped down over the last 8 years… yes, I do really want it.” 

Henry sits back for a moment and just stares at her, before a soft smile blooms across his face. “I’d want nothing more than for you to take the house. I think that you deserve it, and I have been pretty upset about having to sell it. But, knowing that it’ll stay in the family after all this time, and being able to come back to this town that I love to see you raise your son, well that sounds about perfect.” 

She gives him a big hug, whispering  _ “thank you”  _ over and over again. 

“But—” he hesitates, hugging her back. “Your mother and I both own the house through the divorce, so it’s also up to her. She has to agree to the deal as well.” 

“Oh shit,” she blurts out, and her father chides her for her language with a laugh. 

“We’ll talk to her though,” he nods, “Don’t worry. I think she’ll agree.” 

.::.

The rest of their day is boring and busy with Regina, Henry and her father working together to try and pack up the rest of their things. Most of the boxes are finally full and sorted out according to the owner of the contents, with the exception of some of her mother’s things still strewn about the house. 

She’s been texting back and forth with Robin for most of the day, these little flirty comments slipping through every now and then. He’s at work and Roland is spending the day at a friends house, which has left them both with a bit more longing than she intended. 

_ You know, I had a lot of fun last night.  _ She stares at the message, her thumb hovering over the blue send button before she takes a deep breath and hits it. She tosses her phone up onto the counter and ignores it, not wanting to see what his response will be, or even if he will respond back to her message. 

Her phone chimes right back though and she grabs it, smiling when she reads his response.  _ Oh trust me love, I did as well. That was the best night I’ve had in a long while. _

Oh, she absolutely feels the same way. She’s still sore, each time she moves she feels the pull of her skin, where he had been the night before. It’s making her wet thinking about it, about him, but then she hears her son’s laughter and her father’s jokes and it pulls her right back out of it. 

_ I’d love to do it again sometime, if you want?  _

She barely sets her phone down before it chimes three times in quick succession and she picks it back up. 

_ Yes _

She laughs and quickly types back  _ We should get together again soon, before I head back to Mist Haven  _ before setting her phone down and getting back to work. 

She can hear her phone go off from upstairs as she finds the Henry’s playing with toys long forgotten about. “You boys working in there?” 

“Yeah!” she hears her son say, and then they both snicker. She grabs the last box from the powder room and goes back down the steps, picking her phone back up when she sets the box on the counter. 

_ There's nothing that I’d like more darling. Do you know when you’re going back?  _

She considers for a moment what she should say, whether or not she should tell him that she wants to stay, that her father is willing to let her keep her childhood home. 

Before she can respond she hears her phone ringing, his stupid smug face flashes across her screen. She grabs the phone and holds it up to her ear, listening to his laughter. 

“Hey there,” she smiles, and the deep gravelly sound in her voice has her surprised. 

“Hello darling,” he whispers, but his voice is deep and warm and she wants to bask in it. “How’s packing going?”

“Miserably boring, to be honest. Henry and my Dad keep getting distracted looking at things and telling stories, so I’ve done about four times the work that either of them have done,” she sighs. 

“Well,” he starts, “You could play hooky? Come see me at work and we can go get some lunch, maybe sneak back to my place for a bit.” 

“Robin,” she chides, letting out a short laugh. “I can’t do that.” 

“Who says you can’t? From how I see it, your father and Henry are perfectly content with their packing, and it sounds like they could do without you for a few minutes.”

She smirks, leaning against the counter. “Few minutes? Selling yourself a bit short there, aren’t you. I think you can last longer than that.” 

He laughs again, this deep gorgeous baritone that goes straight to her core, weakens her knees. “Oh darling, I’ll need much more than just a few minutes with you. What I want to do with you would take hours. Some quick relief though and I could have you coming in no time.” 

“That sounds like a promise there, Mr. Locksley.” 

“Fuck,” he groans into the other end of the phone. “That was hot.”

It’s her turn to smirk now, her arm settling across her chest. “Liked that, did you?”

“I can’t wait to get you alone, love. I’m going to make you come so hard you can’t see straight.” 

She starts to respond but hears footsteps coming back from the staircase. “Shit, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk with you later though, promise.” 

“I love you,” he gets out, and she returns the sentiment and hangs up the phone. 

.::.

The day passes by in a blur, and Regina ends up missing the time with Robin she was hoping to get before her mother got there. She needs to talk with him, needs to figure out if moving back to Storybrooke is something that he would actually want. He’s got to feel the same way about her, he’s already told her he loves her, but what if they’re moving too fast? What if all of this is just some fling? 

She has loved him for most of her life, she knows that to be true. He’s everything to her, the person she should have had her son with. Maybe when she wasn’t 18 and still a child herself, but still, he should have helped her fully raise her son as his own, not have been a temporary stand in for Henry’s deadbeat father while she still pined over a man who never deserved them. 

It’s late, the two Henrys are camped in the guest bedroom watching movies. She’s in bed, book propped up in her lap as she absentmindedly turns the pages and skims over the novel, when her phone rings. Robin’s face, a ridiculous photo he’s taken at some point the night before, pops up, and she brings the phone to her ear. 

“Hey there,” she starts, making herself comfortable. 

“Evening, love. Sorry I didn’t get to continue today, I got busy.” 

“No problem,” she shakes her head, knowing well that he can’t see her, and closes her book. They talk about their day, sharing stories of Robin’s carpentry job, of Henry’s laughter as her father told him more stories about her childhood. They talk for an hour about little things, skirting around the conversation she knows they are both too nervous to have. 

“So,” Robin sighs, “Last night was…”

“Incredible.” 

She hears him laugh and agree, and then let out a low sigh. “I don’t want you to leave.” 

Her breath catches, and she realizes that hearing him admit the same thing she’s been feeling is much more beautiful than she could have ever imagined. “I— don’t think I want to leave.” 

He lets out another laugh, this time lighter, more hopeful. It brings her more joy than she can fathom, hearing him, imagining his bright, gorgeous smile and the way that his dimples shine when he grins at her. “You belong here darling. Storybrooke is your home, always has been. I was afraid to come back here too, afraid that the memories and the fears would overpass all of the joy I had felt here for so long. But then I came back and all I felt was the good. Roland and I are so happy here, and I’ve found so much in being able to show him all of the beautiful things that this town has to offer.” 

“There’s been so much though. I know that yesterday was amazing, incredible even, but there has still been so many factors to coming back that make me nervous. I don’t want Daniel anywhere near Henry. It’s been easier, knowing that he’s missing, that he won’t come back to Mist Haven. He owes too many dealers money there, and it’s been a safe-haven for Henry and I. I can’t let him near him, Robin. Henry’s too important in all of this.” 

“Regina,” he sighs, “I know your son is important, I feel the same way about him. He’ll be safe here. I know that Daniel won’t be back here, and if for some awful reason he decides to come back, he can deal with me. There’s no way I am letting him anywhere near you, or near your son. You two deserve all the happiness in the world, without any stress.” 

She hums, listening carefully as he makes promises that have her stomach churning. “I have to ask… The other day, Granny said something about how I should listen to you, that there’s something you might know. And I trust you, with everything, but it’s been sitting there in the back of my brain for a while and I’m not sure if I want to know or not.”

“Oh,” he pauses, taking another deep breath. “There is something that I need to tell you. A lot of things, really, but there’s a few important things. I don’t want to do it over the phone though. You—you deserve better, you should hear all of this story in person.” 

“You’re making me nervous,” she chuckles, fidgeting in her bed. “You haven’t killed someone, have you? Maimed an innocent child or animal?” 

“No,” he stammers, “of course not.” 

“Then why do you sound so guilty?” 

The next works that come out of his mouth have her heart cracking. “I don’t—You’re going to be disappointed. Or angry, or upset… some type of feeling that I don’t want to give you. And there is a good reason behind it, I promise, but I still don’t want to hurt you.” 

“I want to know. If we’re going to do this, I don’t want any secrets. There were always so many secrets growing up between the drugs and partying, and I want to go into this open. It’s the only way, Robin.” 

“I’m all in love, and I agree. But just— you need to listen to the whole story first. Is that okay?” 

He’s being cryptic and it’s making her nervous and making her anxiety flair. She doesn’t want to ruin what they’ve started, even though there really hasn’t been much time spent between them. She doesn’t want to push but it’s so important, especially with her consideration of uprooting her life and moving home, so she agrees and settles in for his story. 

“So,” he starts, “About three years ago Daniel showed up in town. He wasn’t in the best shape… or in any shape, really. He was looking for you though, that was abundantly clear. He was pretty intoxicated, and definitely on something a bit stronger. I found him outside of your parents house. They were long gone at that point, and the house was closed up, but he was outside yelling your name. I got out and he looked so excited to see me, but it quickly turned. He got violent, demanding that I tell him where you were, where Henry was.” 

“Did you?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper. 

“No, I’d never tell him where you were. He got out after that. Just ran off, cussing me of course, saying that I was hiding you for myself, and I haven’t seen him around here since.” 

She’s quiet, taking in everything that he’s said in the past minute. It’s not awful, not like he murdered someone and had the body buried under his home, but it still hurts. 

Daniel was never the best, but knowing that he’s come back to look for her, maybe more than once, has her stomach churning. 

“What if he comes back again?” she chokes out. It’s always sat heavy on her chest, the fear that Daniel will find her, will finally attempt to invoke the parental rights he technically has. “I don’t want him anywhere near Henry, there’s no way. It’s why I’ve loved staying in Mist Haven for so long, because even though he knew we were there that town is so big, he had no idea where we were. We were safe there, away from him and whatever his drug of choice is.” 

“Well that’s the next part,” Robin grimaces, “I told him not to come back, to get out of Storybrooke and if he knows what’s good for him, he’d stay away. Who knows if he listened or not, but it wasn’t pretty. He was saying these… awful things about you, and I just snapped. I couldn’t let him talk about you or Henry that way. So, when he started spewing off all this shit about how you stole his child, how he deserved to be in his son’s life, I told him—” he stops, sucking in a breath.  

“Please, tell me.” 

“I told him to get the fuck out of town and that he’d be brave to try and show his face here again. Now it just comes down to whether or not he listened to me. Like I said, it seems like he hasn’t come back since then. You know that Granny knows everything, and I’m sure she’d be the first one to call him out on his bullshit.” 

“She honestly would though,” she laughs. “So, you really haven’t seen him since?” 

“Not once, love. I promise.” 

She sighs and cards her fingers through her hair. “I’m still not comfortable telling Henry the real truth about his father. He’s too young to know and I don’t want any bit of Daniel’s past coming into our lives to haunt my son. He’s so pure and so good, he doesn’t need any of Daniel’s bullshit in his life.” 

“If he does come back he’ll have a lot of people to get through before he ever finds Henry.” 

She’s quiet for a moment, contemplating all of the possibilities before them. She’d have to run the move by Henry formally, of course, but from her son’s excitement at her even considering that they should move earlier, she knows he’ll say yes. There is the matter of the house, as well. 

She wants it so badly that she’s actually considering begging her mother to let her keep the home. With her father’s permission it helps, he can always sign his portion of their home over to her, but convincing Cora to not be a conniving bitch wasn’t something she’s ever been good at in her life. 

She and her mother had always had a strained relationship, the pressure of being perfect resting heavily on Regina’s shoulders ever since she’d been small. It never helped that in her teenage years she made every wrong choice she could, sneaking out nightly to go party in the woods with her friends, avoiding her college applications and responsibilities, and ultimately the final thing that pushed her mother away from her— becoming pregnant with Henry. 

She surely didn’t regret her son, nor the time she spent growing up with Robin, Daniel and Emma. It still pained her to think of one of her best friends dying, sat like a knife in her heart whenever she let herself remember Emma in the way she was before the drugs overtook her body, her mind, and her spirit. She missed Daniel too, sometimes. Not who he’d become in their final years together but the sweet, 16 year old boy she’d fallen in love with. The one who held open doors for her and went out of his way to ensure her safety, no matter where they were. 

It was the polar opposite of the man he’s grown to be, the one who chose drugs and partying over his girlfriend and their newborn son. 

She knew that Cora held what happened over her head, took pride in knowing that Regina’s wrong path ultimately left her alone, just what her mother had wished upon her the last night that she walked out of the house and never looked back. It’s what drove her fear now, the anxiety that sat in a pit low in her stomach at the mere thought of asking her mother a simple question. 

She had to do it though. For her relationship, for her son, it needed to be done. Mist Haven was never the place that she wanted to raise Henry, and while she adored having Mal and Cruella nearby, she knew what her heart really wanted. 

“Robin,” she starts, snapping herself out of her own trace, “I think Henry and I are going to move back home. If— if you’re okay with it, that is.” 

“Really?” he asks, and his voice sounds so hopeful and she thinks she might break. 

She nods again and laughs a little at herself, at how stunned she is to the point where she is practically speechless. “Yeah,” she continues, settling low into the bed, phone resting by her ear. “The more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize how much I want to be here. I want Henry to see Storybrooke and I— I want to see it how I did before everything went to hell. It’s not official though. I talked with my Dad this morning and I asked him if it were possible if I could maybe have the house?” 

“That would be amazing,” Robin claims. “What about Cora? How’s she going to feel about all of this.” 

“We know how awful my mother is most of the time so I’m sure she’ll put up a fight. I’ve got to handle it on my own with her though, there’s no way that I can let anyone else into it. She’s got to finally see me as an adult, not some scared, pregnant 18 year old running away from home. I’m almost 27 years old and she’s barely spoken to me in years. She hasn’t even met her grandson. She’s got no right to tell me what I can or cannot do anymore.”

She goes quiet for a moment before taking a deep breath to continue. “I’m not saying it’s definitely going to happen, and I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be able to convince my mother that I’m worthy of keeping the house, but I really,  _ really  _ hope that I can make this work out.” She doesn’t just mean moving, but them as well, though she doesn’t want to voice that. It’s hard enough to convince herself that this is worth it in the long run, but she doesn’t even want to contemplate the idea that she could move back home and something with Robin wouldn’t work out. 

.::.

The next morning Cora is in the house earlier than any of them expect. She shows up to the house around 6:30 in the morning, flourishing through the door, loudly ordering the men with the moving truck she’d ordered around the house, directing them to get boxes and move things that she has no business controlling. Regina hears Cora from upstairs and groans, pulling the blanket up over her face, burying herself into her bed. It’s like she’s 15 all over again, hiding from her mother in the comfort of her bed, hoping she’ll be ignored and she can go on with her day without her mother pressing her to do something ridiculous. 

It’s short lived though when the door to her bedroom opens and Cora rushes in, letting out a  _ tsk _ at Regina’s state. 

“Really, Regina? You’re laying around while there is work to be done? Why am I not surprised.” 

“I’ve been here for days getting things done, Mother. It’s a wonder that you’ve even bothered to show up for the process to help and not just sent your butler and your other employees to do your bidding for you. It would have been so helpful in the past few days, especially since I’ve been here packing up all of the things that you left behind when you abandoned the house.” 

“You’re one to talk about abandonment, Regina. Now get up and out of bed. There’s work to be done and I’d rather not be stuck in this deteriorating home with your father any longer than I have to. Get out of bed and tell me which boxes are mine so I can get out of here.”

Regina rolls her eyes and climbs out of bed, pulling her unruly hair up into a ponytail at the top of her head. She tugs on her sweatpants and pads out of the room, down the staircase and into the kitchen. There are two men in the kitchen, moving around the boxes that she’d so carefully packed and labeled only for them to now have moved around all of her piles and reorganized all of the work she’d put in this past week. She stares at them in disbelief, rolling her eyes and stepping up closer to them. “Can you not do that?” 

“Sorry ma’am. Mrs. Blanchard has requested that we get her things situated and into the truck as soon as possible.” 

“None of that belongs to my mother. All of her things are already packed, and set up in the dining room. If she’d bothered to pay attention to anything and hadn’t just told you to start working, I’m sure that could have saved you gentlemen a good amount of time unraveling the work that I’ve finished. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like for you to stop touching things and step away before you see how I inherited my mother’s temper, do you understand?” 

“Y— yes ma’am,” the men stammer and scurry off, down the hallway toward the front door. Her father comes up behind her with a chuckle and she turns, crossing her arms and watching him. 

“What?” she asks, fidgeting in her stance. 

“For someone who thinks they’ve ‘inherited their mother’s temper’, you’re much nicer than Cora is. Those men will hear her wrath the second she sees them outside.” 

“I don’t understand how they can possibly work for her. She’s a nightmare.”

“You’re talking to the man who was married to her for twenty years. Trust me kid, I know.” Henry Sr. walks over and wraps her in a hug. She’s limp against his body and she drops her head to her father’s shoulder, taking what comfort he gives her while he pats her on the back. “You should let me talk to her first about giving you the house.”

“She’s not going to listen to you just as much as she isn’t going to listen to me,” Regina argues. 

“There was a point where she and I loved one another, a long time ago. Let me at least mention it to her first and gauge a reaction, and we can take it from there. You should take Henry into town to get some food together for us. I have a feeling it’s going to be a very long day.” 

Regina pulls back from her father and shakes her head, picking at the cuticle of her nail, her eyes cast downward. She feels like a little girl again, afraid to ask her mother if she can go to the park with her friends, nervous at the thought that her father may be able to get her what she wants. Time and again throughout her childhood though, she wasn’t able to get what she wanted and it wrecked her when her parents would fight, would yell and argue over everything that could or could not happen to her. “I’m not going anywhere. If she wants to argue that I don’t deserve to live in Storybrooke, then I want to be there to tell her why she’s wrong.” 

“Is that so?” she hears and she turns to see her mother looming menacingly in the doorway. “You want the house?” 

Regina nods and crosses her arms protectively over her chest. She eyes the clock and sees 7:05 illuminated on the stove. Henry will be up soon and the last thing she wants is for him to walk down the steps and see her and her family arguing, but from the look on Cora’s face it’s not going to be an easy conversation. “I’ve been thinking about it since I’ve been back, and I think that it’s in Henry’s and my own best interest if we move back to Storybrooke. Since you want to sell the house anyway, I figured it may be easier if I took over the payments and you guys could let Henry and I live here instead.”

“Do you actually think you’re capable of taking over the house payments? You’ve made so many poor choices, and I have a reputation to maintain— what makes you think I would even consider letting you own this house? This town isn’t good for anyone, especially you. We all saw how you destroyed your future when you were a child. What makes you think you’re responsible enough for this now? Let’s be serious here, you’re nothing more than a confused child.” 

Regina is absolutely fuming. There’s a rage coursing through her that she hasn’t felt in years, one that only her mother evokes in her. Who is she to call her a child? Who is she to question anything that has happened over the past 8 years? As if Cora has had any say in her life since she walked out the door. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Really? A child? I’m 26 years old, with a full time job and an 8 year old son. I’m on track to run for city council in the upcoming election. I have a house, a car, minimal debt, and I’m doing all that while being a single mom. You have a lot of nerve telling me that I need to grow up. I did all my growing up the second that you told me I either needed to get myself together, or get out.” 

Cora laughs and the rage boils her blood, the thought that her mother could be so conceited, so pretentious, that she believes she still has this power over the daughter she abandoned. “Come now Regina, stop being ridiculous. There is no reason for us to even be having this conversation right now. Your father is bound to agree with me. This house is too much for you. If you want to fall back twenty steps and move back to Storybrooke then so be it, but I’m not going to support you in that whatsoever.” 

“Oh great, then that makes this situation no different than it was 8 years ago when I told you I was pregnant. You still just see me as incapable Regina Mills, all alone with a baby bump, hoping that her mother will dig into her blackened heart to find some self decency and help her daughter in one of the most trying times in her life.” 

“If I hadn’t let you figure yourself out then, you never would have had to grow up. Not like you did a very good job of it though. Honestly Regina, look at yourself. I can’t see one, single reason why you should move back to Storybrooke. This town is a sinking ship and the fact that you want to throw yourself back into it, rather than realizing the potential you have by staying in Mist Haven just shows me that you aren’t ready for any sort of responsibility.” 

Regina scoffs and crosses her arms over her chest, leaning back against the kitchen counter. Her father is next to her and with a quick glance she can see the surprise on his face that she’s actually fighting back, something that most people would never dare to do against Cora. She can see his hesitation to jump in but she shakes her head  _ no _ at him. This is her fight, and if Cora is ever going to see her as an adult, she needs to do this on her own. “I— you have  _ got  _ to be kidding me. You really think that the reason I am successful, the reason that I’ve gotten my life together is because you abandoned me? You’re really going to take credit for this?” 

“Your father had the situation under control. He was there enough. I couldn’t stand to watch you throw your life away by having that baby of yours. You had so much potential.” Cora is so calm in all of this that is truly shocks Regina at how pretentious and self-absorbed she truly is. 

It’s something that, while growing up, Regina feared for herself as a mother. When she realized she was pregnant with Henry it kept her up late at night, the thought that one day she may turn out to be just like her mother. They were similar in so many ways, two strong, overpowering women. They could both take command of a room within minutes, could bring a group to silence and fight for what they wanted within no matter of time at all. Regina had admired that skill in her mother at a young age, when she would go to her mother's office after school and sit beneath her desk, listening as Cora poured through the details of a case and powered her way through court proceedings. It was something she had always admired until Cora’s vicious word and had turned unto her, had been her mother pickings at her friends, her clothing choices, her disregard for rules and desire to do anything possible to live her life how she wanted to and not how she was expected. 

It stabs her right in the heart though to hear Cora finally say it, for her mother finally admit what she’d wanted to happen to her son all those years ago. 

“Don’t you  _ dare  _ talk about Henry that way, and especially not when he could hear you. That boy is my world, and I’ll not have you anywhere near him if you even think, for one second, that I’ll let you run him down. He’s your grandson, for fuck’s sake. And he’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. He’d be the greatest thing that ever happened to you too, if you’d just open your eyes. Henry and I are moving to Storybrooke, whether you like it or not. You may think I’m still a child, but I grew up the second that strip turned pink and I realized that I didn’t have my family by my side. So you know what Mother? You don’t have to like it and I could not give a damn about having your blessing. Even if you don’t give us the house, that’s not going to stop Henry and I from moving back home. But don’t you dare think for one second that I’ll let Henry hear you talk about him like he shouldn’t be here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my son is probably awake and I’m sure he’d love to go get some breakfast.” 

The last thing that Regina sees as she storms out of the kitchen is Cora’s shocked face. Her mother is fuming, that much is clear, but she doesn’t care. How dare she drag Henry’s existence into this? How dare she even insinuate, for one second, that Henry’s life did anything negative to her? She can hear her mother starting to yell again as she makes her way up the steps, Henry Sr’s calm voice interluding her mother’s rampage as he tells her to  _ ‘let it go’ _ . Cora  _ should  _ let it go. It’s insanity that she would ever consider, for one  _ second _ that Henry isn’t perfect, especially seeing as she hasn’t even bothered to meet her grandson. 

She stops in front of Henry’s bedroom door and drops her head to the frame, taking a moment to collect herself before she goes into the room. She’s been afraid to introduce Henry to his grandmother, especially with the tension that already rests between her and her mother. It’s something that she felt guilty for, for so long, the fact that her son doesn’t know his grandmother due to her own selfish inability to be around Cora. She’s been on the other end of her mother’s wrath though, more times than not, and that’s not something she’d ever think to subject her son to. 

Today though, she needs to take her son to get some food, get herself out of the house for a few hours and ride on the high she has from  _ finally _ telling her mother exactly how she feels. She reaches down and wraps her fingers around the door-knob, hoping that Henry’s still asleep, that her inquisitive son didn’t spend the last half an hour with his ear pressed to the door listening to his mother scream. 

She shifts the door open quietly and, thankfully, Henry’s still sound asleep in his bed. She takes a moment to watch him as his chest rises and falls, his hand thrown over his forehead, free arm wrapped around a stuffed dragon that he’d found in her childhood bedroom the day prior. His hair is disheveled and she takes a moment to just admire him in his sleep, her perfect boy, her reason for everything. Regina pads into the room and sits on the edge of the bed, carding her fingers through his hair. 

“Henry, darling, it’s time to get up.” 

He stirs with a groan and rolls over, tugging the blanket up to his face, hiding just as she’d done earlier with her own mother. “Too early,” he growls, burying himself into his pillow, just his dark, messy hair sticking out from the top of his blanket. 

“You and I have to head into town to run some errands and get something to eat from Granny’s. Your grandmother is here and I’m not quite sure I’d like to spend another minute with her in this house, so I thought we could pop in for some pancakes and hot chocolate?” 

He quickly pushes the blanket down and rolls over, side-eyeing her carefully. “Can there be marshmallows in the hot chocolate?” 

She feigns disbelief and flashes him a smile when he nuzzles his face into her hip. “What other kind would there be? Of course we need marshmallows, and cinnamon. Come on now, up with you. I’ll get your clothes out and you run and brush your teeth okay?” 

Henry nods and climbs out of the bed. He starts to walk toward the door but hesitates and turns back toward her. “Mom,” he starts, a yawn seeping through. “Is Grandma going to be nice?” 

“Oh Henry,” she whispers, getting up and walking over to wrap him up in a tight hug. “She will be, I’m sure of it. Don’t you worry about her though, I’ll take care of everything. Just go get cleaned up and meet me downstairs in a few minutes, okay?” 

He nods and she presses a kiss to the top of his head before he runs out the door and down the hallway to the bathroom. Regina sucks in a deep breath and channels her anger from earlier, before walking down the steps. She has no idea if her mother is still around but she won’t let her see her in any way other than strong. She pauses at the bottom of the staircase and listens, hears her parents whispering angrily in the kitchen where she’d left them. It brings back memories of being a small girl, hiding with her face pressed against the wooden bannister, listening as her parents argued over  _ everything _ that they could. There were few moments of her childhood that stuck with her so vividly but that was always one of them, hiding, waiting for her father to come upstairs and tuck her back into bed after he and mother had one of their fights, promising that Cora was harmless, that her mother did love her, just in her own, twisted way. 

Regina’s no longer eight though, and she doesn’t fear the repercussions of getting caught— though she still feels that urge to sneak back up the staircase and crawl into bed and just sleep the day away, ignoring all of her responsibilities. Henry’s footsteps come from behind her though and she turns to catch her son in her arms when he lunges forward and wraps her in his own version of a tight hug. 

“Don’t worry Mom,” he reassures and her heart breaks just a little, knowing that her son can see through her wall of fears. “I’m awesome, she’s going to  _ love _ me.” 

“I bet she is,” Regina reassures, kissing his forehead. She sets Henry down and quickly inspects the outfit she laid out for him, straightening a strand of hair, brushing the wrinkles out of his shirt. 

She hears a cough and turns, smiling at her father as he stands in the doorway. “Good morning Henry,” he smiles, his voice low and comforting, and Regina can’t help but wonder what awful things her mother said to him about her when she left the room. 

“Grandpa!” Henry cheers, rushing across the room with his arms open. He’s immediately scooped up in a tight up and her father does the same and inspects Henry, just as she’d just done. “Is Grandma still in the kitchen?” he asks, peeking around the older man. 

“She stepped outside for a moment, but I’m sure we can go out front to meet her before you two head out for breakfast.”

“You aren’t coming too?” Henry asks, the disappointment lacing through his voice. 

“I’ve got a good amount of things to discuss with your grandmother, and I do believe that you and your mom deserve a nice, long breakfast together. You can bring me back something though, whatever you’d like to surprise me with. How does that sound.” 

He contemplates Henry Sr’s words for a moment before nodding. “Okay! Let’s go outside now though. Come on, Mom.” 

Henry’s gone and out the door before she can even turn around, and she watches, her heart pounding when he comes face to face with Cora. Regina steps out onto the porch and she can see that there is a fear on his face, but Henry, her always brave kid, fixes his features immediately and stands up straight, holding his hand out to her mother. 

“Hi there,” she hears him say, his little chest puffed out. “I’m Henry.” 

She holds her breath, watches as her mother kneels down and holds her hand out to him as well. It’s not at all what she expected, watching as he steps a little closer and she thinks, just maybe, that the smallest smile inches onto her mother’s face. Regina doesn’t move, just lets her son hold his own. She would absolutely step in if she had to but she can tell by the way that Henry holds himself that he’s just fine, whispering along with whatever story Cora has him listening to. 

Henry lets out a giggle and turns, looking over his shoulder at her and flashing her a smile. “Mom, Grandma says that you used to have a playset  _ and  _ a treehouse. Is that true?” 

“It is,” Regina laughs, stepping off the deck and toward them. “The treehouse fell apart years ago but it sat in that tree right over there,” she says, pointing. The playset was pretty fun though. I’m not sure what ever happened to that.” It’s a blatant lie, her mother had thrown the set away when she told Regina she was too old to play outside, but she doesn’t want to share that bit of information with him. 

Henry and Cora chat for another few minutes before he rushes back over to her, slipping his hand into hers where it hangs by her side. “Can we go get breakfast now? Grandma says that she needs to talk to Grandpa and my stomach is growling.” 

“Of course baby,” she smiles, brushing his unruly hair down. 

Regina bids both of her parents goodbye and walks down the path and out to the sidewalk. It’s a cold morning in Storybrooke but she feels energized and a little nervous at the prospect of the day ahead of her. Whether her mother decides to give her the house or not, she’s sure that moving back home is the best thing that they could do for their future. 

When they reach the front of Granny’s her phone rings, Mal’s face flashing onto the screen. She tells Henry to go inside, watching as he rushes up the steps of the diner and through the door before picking up her phone. 

There isn’t even a hello, just Mal asking “Is Cora there yet?” quickly into the speaker. 

“God, of course she is, in all of her horrifying glory. She’s met Henry though and that went… better than I expected. He just ran right up to her, like she wasn’t this terrifying figment that he was afraid to meet. It was so odd seeing her with him though. Like she had a heart.” 

“From what you tell me, she wasn’t always so bad.” 

She scrubs her hand down her face and lets out a sigh, leaning against the fence. “She just put work over everything else,  _ everyone _ else, for so long. It was like when she had a big case Dad and I didn’t exist. I was an angry teenager and I didn’t make it any easier. We’re the same person though, Mom and I. I was so quick to stand up to her, to push her buttons and make her snap, especially when I was older.” 

“Do you think she’s going to give you the house?” 

“Who knows?” Regina shrugs. “Dad listened to the two of us fight and hopefully, maybe he’ll talk some sense into her. I told her off though and god, Mal, it felt  _ so _ good. Just to tell her exactly how I felt, to show her that she really doesn’t know me. She still looks at me like I’m a child and I can’t stand it anymore. It’s one thing for her to pick on me, but then she brought Henry into it, like he shouldn’t even be here, and I lost it. We just walked up to get breakfast and I’m still reeling from it. I’m so…  _ excited _ though. Like, I can’t believe this is all turning around and happening so quickly. I need a job though. I can’t get sucked back into the black hole that is Storybrooke and not have a plan though. My mother will never go for it if I can’t lay everything out specifically.” 

Mal sighs and Regina can hear her shuffling around at her desk, the tell-tale sound of her keyboard clicking while Mal tells her to  _ ‘hold on’  _ and keeps typing. “Did you know that it’s an election year in Storybrooke?” 

“It’s a— wait, really?” Regina asks, shocked and stunned. “What seats are up?” 

“There are two council seats, as well as the Mayor’s. From the looks of it though there are people with their name in for the mayoral spot, but there’s very few people running for city council. This would be perfect for you. You can get out of the Mayor’s office in Mist Haven and finally get yourself onto council like you’ve wanted. What better opportunity? And besides, even if your mother was a little terrifying in Storybrooke going up, it was obvious to me that everyone there loves you. You’d be a perfect fit to run the town.” 

“You think?”

“I  _ know _ you can do this, Regina. You’re fucking brilliant. You’ve stepped up in every situation that has ever been thrown at you and you’ve overcome them all by leaps and bounds. There is no reason why you wouldn’t do the same on council, or even running for Mayor one day. You just have to believe in yourself darling, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. It’s you and Henry against the world, always has been. If you keep putting your heart into whatever you want, I have no doubt that you’ll be running that town within the next five years.” 

She hangs up with Mal a few minutes later, reeling at the possibilities before her. The more she thinks about it, the more things are falling into place and she’s practically  _ giddy _ with excitement, thinking of her son, of Robin and Roland, the steps of her future melding together in ways that she’d only dreamed of. Regina turns and looks down the street, see’s Robin’s truck outside of an old office building. He’s outside and has his back turned to her, fiddling in the back of the truck with a box of flooring and his toolbox. 

Her legs carry her across the street faster than she realizes, her brain firing with snapshots of the next few years laid out before her. “Robin!” She calls out, and he barely has time to turn before she’s on, him, cupping the side of his neck, her lips pressed to his. 

His hands shoot up to her hips, hovering over her clothing, not quite touching her. His body practically melts against her though and he wraps one arm low around her waist, tugging her closer to him. 

She plants her free hand against his chest and pulls away, grinning up at him. “Today’s been  _ such  _ a good day,” she starts, quickly telling him about her mother and their argument. He’s trying to cut in, to tell her something but she just can’t stop, the words rushing out of her. “It’s barely 10:30 and Mal has fully put me on a path that could help me stay here permanently.” She kisses him again, these sweet, little kisses peppering over his lips, his cheeks, his jaw. “I don’t have anything set in stone yet but it’s looking good, Robin. Really, really good.” He opens his mouth to answer and she surges up once more, this time kissing him a little harder, the line of her body pressed to his. She sucks on his bottom lip, nipping it, drawing it between her teeth before pulling away and soothing it with her tongue. 

He pulls back on a gasp, cupping her cheek to hold her face just barely from his, their noses brushing together. “Regina, love, you’ve got to slow down. This is great but—” 

She cuts him off again with another kiss, pulling away just as quickly as she had surged herself against him. There’s a smile plastered across her face that she can feel, her cheeks straining with her grin, but she’s just so  _ happy _ that things are finally starting to look her way that she just can’t bear to hold it in any longer. 

“But you should also realize darling that we’re in the middle of a road. Let’s move over to the sidewalk and—”

“No, no Henry’s waiting for me at the diner, I’ve got to go back. Just, don’t turn your phone off tonight, okay? I have a really good feeling about today and,” she pops back up onto the tips of her toes and kisses him one last time, “I’ve got to run. I’ll talk to you later though,” she tells him and with that she’s off, rushing back across the street and into the diner. 

When she gets back into the diner she sees Henry chatting with Granny, a slew of pictures of her as a teenager spread out in front of him. There is one particular one that draws her attention, a polaroid where Robin is standing behind her, his right arm wrapped around her shoulders and she’s looking up at him. 

“That one’s my favorite,” Granny tells her, turning the picture to look at it. “I can’t remember what day that was but you kids were so young, only 16 or so it seems.” 

“I remember taking this in the beginning of the summer, when Emma got that camera. She took so many pictures of us all that year, it was insane. It was fun though and looks like she got a lot of them.” 

“And left them all here,” Granny laughs. “I was cleaning out the office last night and came across a whole box of pictures that you kids took. You’re more than welcome to have them, if you’d like. You and Robin can go through them and sort out the ones that you want and I’ll hang some of whatever’s left here in the diner.” 

“I—” Regina hesitates, “That would be great, actually. You’re sure you don’t mind?” 

Granny shakes her head then grabs a plastic bag from beneath the counter and has Henry help her sort the photos into the bag. “Nonsense dear, you have more of a claim to these than I do. Now, your son has decided he wants french toast with eggs  _ and _ bacon for breakfast.” 

Regina looks down at him and Henry sheepishly hides his head, finding interest in the seam of his jeans very quickly. “Has hes now?” she asks, eyebrow raised, and he looks back up at her and grins. 

“Please Mom? You keep saying I’m a growing boy.”

Regina laughs and brushes his hair out of his eyes, looking from him to Granny. “He can have it. I’ll take coffee and a bagel, if you don’t mind. Henry, go and wash your hands while I talk to Granny.” 

He rushes off and Granny pours her coffee, passing it across the counter. “Something on your mind?” She asks, reaching below the counter to grab two vanilla creamers, passing them to Regina. 

“I think…” she trails, sucking in a deep breath. “Things are all starting to fall into place for me around here and I want to tell you, before you heard it from my mother or anyone else running their mouth around town, Henry and I are considering moving back. He doesn’t know yet and I don’t want to get his hopes up, but—” 

“This wouldn’t have to do with you kissing a certain carpenter across the street a few minutes ago, now would it?” 

Her face turns beet red and she ducks her head, letting her hair fall down to cover her cheeks. “I— We—” 

“Don’t worry, girl,” Granny laughs. “I kept Henry sufficiently distracted so he didn’t catch his Mom making out in the street. Good for you though, the two of you should have been together long ago.” 

“It’s new,” she whispers, watching out of the corner of her eye as Henry comes out from the hallway. “But it’s good,” she rushes out. “Really, really good. There’s a lot of other factors into it that I’m still trying to figure out, with work and housing but…” 

Henry’s almost back and Granny squeezes her hand quickly, a fleeting moment before her son hops up onto his stool at the counter and starts rapidly telling her all about something he’d read in one of his comics. 

Breakfast passes quickly and they go to the park after that so Henry can play for a while. She’s frustrated that she can’t get Henry to tell her anything about what he and her mother discussed earlier. It’s been picking at the back of her brain all morning, the possibility of anything Cora could have said to Henry that would have him giggling like he was, but she pushes it down when they head back to the house and she sees her father sitting on the front porch, staring down at his clasped hands. 

As they head up the walkway he looks up and smiles at them, his elbows resting on his knees. 

“Where’s she at?” Regina asks, dropping her hand to her son’s shoulder. 

“Somewhere inside, ordering people around, I assume. You two were gone for a while, it’s almost noon.” 

“Didn’t quite want to be around her very much, if I’m being honest. Henry, why don’t you run inside and get your suitcase packed up so we can get on the road later, okay?” 

He nods then runs off, and she takes a seat next to her father, dropping her head onto his shoulder. “She’s not too happy with me, is she?” 

“Your mother is a complex person darling. That much we both know. I don’t think that she expected you to be so… vocal this morning. You really let her have it, didn’t you?” 

Regina sighs. “She’s never seen me as an adult, and I’d rather not let her continue to think of me that way. I’ve never wanted her out of my life, even when I was running away. I was a scared kid, lost and alone, and even though I knew I’d made mistakes, I still wanted her to be proud of me. Look at me now though. I’ve been so good, for so long and she should see me that way.” 

Her father wraps an arm around her shoulder, squeezing her close. “She does, now, at least. She’s kept up on you for the past few years and been watching, even if she hasn’t said so. I’m not making excuses for her at all, and I know that you and your mother aren’t going to fix everything in a day, but after you left she and I sat down and had a chat. She doesn’t like how you went about telling her what you want, but I think you’ve gained a good amount of respect from her for standing up to her like that. Now, the house is big for the two of you, and we both agree that even though it’s paid off, the taxes and utilities are a bit steep for your income. You could make it but we both want you to live comfortably. However, we’ve come to an agreement. There was a trust set up for you when you were born that was set to be given to you when you were 30, but with the circumstances, your mother has agreed to let you have it now. It’s enough to help you pay for the house and take care of Henry while you run for office. I’m assuming you’ll be running for office, correct?” 

She’s stunned into speechlessness but she nods, staring at him. “I— um, yeah, that’s the plan.” 

“Then it’s settled. This will be a good savings, so that you can run for office and get settled into the house without having to worry. I know you, I know that you’ll probably not use it unless you have to, but your mother and I both agree that you’ve earned it, Regina. We’re both  _ so _ proud of you, of all of your accomplishments. You’ve raised such an amazing son and you have done so much at such a young age.” He reaches over and takes her hand into his, dropping the key’s she’d used to open the front door just one week ago, when she had no intention of coming back, of ever staying in Storybrooke longer than she had to. “You’ve earned this house, Regina. You deserve to be happy.” 

She can’t believe it. They keys feel heavy in the palm of her hand and she stares down at them, tracing over the ridges. Her breath catches but she won’t cry. The rush of excitement, of possibility, of a future that she could have only dreamed of when she was 18 and sneaking out the front door and into that ratty old pick-up truck she loves so much, courses through her. 

“Thank you,” she whispers, throwing her arms around her father in a tight hug, burying her face into his shoulder. “Thank you so,  _ so  _ much. This is— I don’t even know what to say.” 

He hugs her back, squeezes her tightly in his arms, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re welcome.” 

They both go back into the house and she takes a moment to look around at the bare walls, unfurnished rooms and endless possibilities. She can hear Henry upstairs talking with Cora, hears her mother’s surprisingly cheerful voice in response to her son. Her heart swells and she’s practically euphoric as she finishes helping her parents put their things into their respective moving vans. Regina hugs her father and tells him goodbye, turning towards Cora when Henry Sr pulls his grandson aside. She hugs her mother tightly and bids her goodbye, thanking her for everything, for the house, ending their conversation with a promise that she’ll keep in touch, that maybe she and Henry can come out and visit her this spring. Everything is so good and she can’t wait to tell Robin. 

They watch as both of the moving trucks pull off and after her week of insanity, of her life turning upside down and she feels… free. 

Henry turns to her and looks over toward the house and then up at her. “Why aren’t we leaving too?” 

Regina smiles down at him and drops down to one knee, beaming at her beautiful boy, her reason for everything. “Your Grandma and Grandpa decided that they think that we deserve to live in Storybrooke, just like you’d asked if we could. They told us that we can stay here, forever, in this house.” 

His eyes widen and he beams at her, throwing his arms around her neck in a tight hug. “Really?! I’m so excited!” he cheers, his little body wriggling against hers. “Can we tell Robin and Roland? Roland is going to be so excited. We can watch all the new Avengers movies now with them too. And we need to tell Granny, and call Aunt Mal and Aunt Cruella to tell them to come here too. This is the  _ best.”  _

“It really is,” she smiles, breathing him in, hugging him once more before he steps back. “Why don’t you go run inside and use that takeout menu I snagged from Granny’s to pick out some things that we can have for dinner, okay?” 

“Okay!” he shouts, rushing across the lawn. “Call Robin and Roland!” 

She does just that, pulling her phone out and holding it up to her ear. It rings twice before his gorgeous voice comes over the line, a gravely “Hello, darling,” that has her stomach fluttering. 

“You need to come over right now. Henry and I, we’re staying. We got the house.” 

“Really?” he asks, his voice so light, so hopeful that she wants to cry, loves him so fucking much it makes her heart want to burst. 

“Really, you have to come by to celebrate with us. Bring Roland, Henry’s getting an order from Granny’s and I’ll run and pick it up when you get here.” 

“Don’t worry darling, I’ll grab it on my way over.” She hears him pull away from the phone and tell Roland to get his shoes on. “We’ll be over in a few minutes, okay?” 

“Okay.” She grins into the phone like an idiot, a blush rising up her cheeks when he tells her he loves her and he can’t wait to see her. 

Twenty minutes later she hears his truck pull up outside. Henry’s out the front door faster than she is, rushing out into the front yard, yelling “We’re staying!” at the top of his lungs. Roland cheers and he high fives the younger boy, the two immediately rushing back toward the house. Roland has a little backpack on, and before he heads into the house he runs over to Regina and hugs her legs. She barely has time to hug him back before he’s gone again, yelling to Henry that he’s brought comics with him. 

When she turns Robin’s right behind her. Their food is setting on the front walk, and before she can even speak, he wraps an arm around her waist and curls his palm against her jaw, tilting her head up to kiss her. 

His lips are warm against hers, the kiss so soft that her heart pounds in her chest, her hands mapping up his skin, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. She stretches up onto her toes to meet him, opening up to him, his tongue tangling with hers. She sucks his bottom lip between her own, nips at him, drawing out a moan from deep within, forcing her body closer to his. They part just as slowly as they began and he drops a few chaste kisses to her lips, pulling away from her with a grin. 

“I love you,” she whispers, her thumb caressing over his jaw, the sharp curve of his cheekbone, his stubble rough beneath the pad of her finger. Her forehead is pressed to his and she breathes him in, tilting her head to kiss his cheek, her nose brushing against his skin. 

“I love you too,” Robin tells her, kissing her once more slowly. They stay like that for a moment, breathing each other in, and she reaches down and tangles her fingers with his, stepping back toward the house. “Come on, I want to show you everything.” 

He follows her into the house and she loves hearing the boys upstairs, their laughter echoing through the halls. Robin steps up behind her and curls his hand around her hip, dropping a kiss to her shoulder. “Let me go put the food on the counter and then we can go through the house, okay?” 

It’s not something she’s thought about, the fact that this whole space is  _ hers,  _ to do what she wants with, and the possibilities make her giddy. When he comes back she stretches up and kisses his cheek, a quick, fleeting thing before she takes his hand and drags him through the rooms. 

“The living room will stay the same, and then Henry can take over my old bedroom and I’ll move into the master. The place needs to be redone but I have plenty of time to remodel and make it my own. I was hoping you’d help too?” 

“Of course, darling,” he smiles, and they walk into her mother’s old office. She stops in the middle of the room and turns back toward him, placing her hand on his chest. Regina takes in the office, the big brown walls and archways that terrified her as a child but now fill her with hope for their future. 

“I’m running for city council,” she tells him as his hands come up to wrap around her waist, tugging her closer to him, his thumbs circling over the curve of her hip. “It’s going to be a busy few months, but I want to run my campaign the right way. I want to give back to Storybrooke everything that it gave me, gave  _ us _ when we were kids. This is the right opportunity for Henry and I, for us. I’m ready for a new adventure, and I want you by my side, every step of the way.” 

Robin grins and leans down, kissing her softly, his forehead pressing against hers as he pulls away. “I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.  _ You _ are my future darling, and it’s going to be brilliant.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for sticking with me through this story. I'd love to hear your thoughts!


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